A fresh perspective
by A suit of armour
Summary: One day, after a series of particularly bad ranked matches, Agent 4 gets the task of teaching Agent 8, a fresh escapee of the deepsea metro, the ins and outs of Inkling Society. But little does he know, it'll help him get a fresh perspective on life. Contains Spoilers for the Octo expansion.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello there and welcome to the first chapter of this little story I'm writing (and the first chapter I've ever posted on this site, so here's hoping it's a good one). I really hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. This is set more-or-less straight after the end of the Octo Expansion. And yes, this is an Agent 4x8 Fanfiction. If it does well, I might write an Agent 3x8 story in future, possibly with female 3 and male 8. Who knows, I need to get this story completed first, which I fully intend to do.**

 **Disclaimer: Splatoon, Splatoon 2 and the Octo Expansion are not owned by me, they are owned by Nintendo.**

* * *

 _Not again…_

Was the main thought running through the mind of a ponytailed Inkling boy named Katsuo Tataki as he struggled to stop himself from screaming in frustration. His hands hurt from how tightly he gripped the .52 Gal in his hands as he looked at the result from his latest ranked match, letting out an annoyed huff as he did so.

 _Defeat._

He knew exactly what that meant. He kept looking at the screen in front of him in the lobby showing him his rank, and his grip tightened even more when his meter shattered. Whilst he had enough meter to avoid de-ranking to C, he was back at square one for B rank. He declined playing another match and tossed away his weapon before he stormed out into the square, fists clenched at his sides. Despite it being early in the morning, the square was decently populated. Katsuo didn't care though, as he stormed towards Ammo Knights.

" _Can't believe my_ dear _little brother can't get out of B rank. It took me less than a day and you've been stuck in it for what, a couple months now? I made it to the top of S+ in that time."_ The voice of his older brother taunted in his head as the image of _that_ smirk flashed in his mind. He stopped just outside the shop and released a deep breath, trying to cool his head. His fists slowly started to unclench, but then he suddenly wobbled in place for a moment before bracing himself against the wall to his left with his arm. He stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, his tired green eyes shut.

 _I'm fine… I just need a moment's rest is all… just need a minute to recover… maybe I should've gotten up a bit lat-_

His squid phone suddenly buzzed in his hoodie pocket, cutting off his train of thought. After a moment of trying to grip it the right way around, he removed it from his pocket and checked the message he'd been sent, and his eyes widened as far as they could the moment he saw it was sent by Marie.

" _Hey Agent 4, mind popping over to my apartment real quick? There're some people I'd like you to meet. Here's a list of directions from the square to my apartment, it shouldn't take you more than a few minutes."_ Katuso barely had time to process what the message said before another one popped up.

" _And hurry the squid up, I think Callie's about to burst from excitement."_ Whilst he stared at the message, a mixture of emotions welled up inside him, including but not limited to; excitement, interest, a rather hefty amount of nervousness and a decent dose of confusion.

 _I've just been invited to Marie's apartment… but to meet other people… but I've still been invited to her apartment! I wonder who's going to be there… she mentioned Callie… so who else could be there…_ His thoughts occupied with wondering who he might meet, he slowly walked off, following the instructions to the best of his ability.

He still managed to get lost at least once.

 _*Some time later, inside an apartment building. *_

… _Just how many people am I supposed to be meeting?_ Katsuo wondered, feeling slightly alarmed at the racket coming from the door that was supposed to lead to Marie's apartment. However his speculation was cut short when the door flew open so fast, he was surprised it didn't fly off its hinges and flatten him against the wall.

"AGENT 4!" Marie hadn't been joking, Callie was bouncing with energy.

"Wha-"

Before Katsuo could even finish his sentence, Callie dragged him into the apartment and slammed the door shut before dragging him to the middle of the 'living' room. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Agent 4! Agent 4, say hi to Agent's 3 and 8, Gramps, Pearl and Marina!" Callie said, excitement radiating from every word. Katsuo blinked a few times and looked around for a moment before he got his bearings.

The first thing he noticed was how everyone in the large, decorated room was now staring directly at him, which caused him to awkwardly scratch his neck and shuffle his feet slightly. The second thing he noticed was that there were only two people standing up, one of which was him. He nervously ran his eyes across the group in front of him…

…And felt his eyes widen in shock as his breath caught in his throat when he saw that a pale Octoling was sitting at the end of the sofa on the right. A pair of curious, yet slightly nervous, blue eyes looked at him, although the former emotion was much more noticeable than the latter, especially with the slight frown that was visible on her forehead.

She noticed he was now looking at her and her gaze flicked up slightly to meet his. After a moment or two, the Octoling tilted her head slightly, and suddenly a thought popped into Katsuo's head, seemingly out of nowhere.

 _She's really cute._

As soon as his brain fully processed his own thought, he felt his face rapidly begin to heat up. The longer he kept eye contact, the hotter his face got and the clearer the pounding in his ears got.

 _D-D-Did I just seriously call an Octoling cute!? B-W-But aren't I supposed to be fighting them!? C-can i even think that about an Octoling!?_

He quickly snapped his head to the left and looked at the rest of the group, trying his best not to think about it.

"Um… hi… I'm… Agent 4… wait you already know that. Carp… Um…" He stammered out quickly. Unawares to him, Marie had noticed his little stare with Agent 8, and a small smile was spreading itself across her lips.

"Well at least now we only have three missing agent spots to fill." A female Inkling wearing hero gear, albeit also with a cape, said with an amused look on her face. When Katsuo just stared at her in confusion she clarified. "We now have Agents 1,2,3,4 and 8, since apparently Cap doesn't know how basic numbering order works."

"It was the best I could come up with at the time, Agent 3." Cap'n Cuttlefish shot back. Before Agent 3 could reply, Pearl suddenly interjected.

" _With Agent's three and four, you know the score!"_ Upon hearing Pearl's rap, Cuttlefish fired off his own lines.

" _Cause these two agent's, who've never been complacent!"_

" _They're gonna show…"_ And so, the two descended into firing rap lines back and forth. Marina, who'd taken notice of the fact Katsuo looked like a fish out of water, spoke up.

"Sorry about that Agent 4, Pearl's gotten the captain into rapping and this turning into a bit of a habit of theirs." The Inkling boy stared at her for a few seconds before something occurred to him.

 _HOLY SQUID I'M IN THE SAME ROOM AS OFF THE HOOK_ _ **AND**_ _THE SQUID SISTERS._ Katsuo nearly yelled out loud, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. But before anything else could happen, Marie stood up and loudly cleared her throat, silencing Pearl and Cap'n Cuttlefish and drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

"Right. Callie already mentioned who everyone was, but I'll got over it again for you, Agent 4." She walked over to him. "That over there is Agent 3." She said, pointing at the female Inkling.

"Yo." Three said, giving Katsuo a smirk and a thumbs up. "Nice work in Octo Canyon. Heck maybe with you around I could retire." She said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Three, you're only 16." Marie said with faint exasperation. "You can't 'retire'." Three just shrugged in reply.

"Well then how about 'passing on the mantle of defending Inkopolis to the next generation'? That sound better?"

"You're just being lazy."

Three clutched her chest and feigned looking absolutely horrified. "Me? Lazy? How dare you accuse me of such a thing."

" _Moving on,_ that's Cap'n Cuttlefish, me and Callie's grandfather."

"A pleasure to meet you, young man. Anyone willing to help in the fight against the octarian menace is a friend of mind." He said. Katsuo stared at Cuttlefish for a few moments before his eyes widened in amazement.

"Captain Cuttlefish!? The leader of the legendary Squidbeak Splatoon?!" He asked excitedly, his eyes twinkling with excitement. "The decorated war hero who managed to turn the tides of countless battles in favour of the Inklings!?" Everyone else in the room, sans the captain himself, blinked in surprise. Cuttlefish seemed to straight his back out slightly more than usual.

"I see you know your history young man." He commented, his voice bearing a hint of approval. Katsuo nodded eagerly.

"It was one of my best subjects at school!" He said excitedly, a grin on his face. Marie felt the edges of her mouth twitch upwards into a smile. _It's a shame he doesn't smile like that more often…_ On the other side of the room, a smile had snuck its way onto Agent 8's face as she'd been watching him.

"Anyway, moving on, I'm sure you know who Pearl and Marina are."

"That's me, Pearl! Aka MC Princess!" She swiftly struck a pose. "And this is Marina! Aka DJ_Hyperfresh!" The aforementioned other member of OTH simply smiled at Katsuo and gave him a small wave. When it looked like Pearl was about to say something, Marie swiftly started speaking, eager to get the introductions over with.

"So, a quick bit of a story update for you 4. Gramps and Three were off on patrol when suddenly they ended up trapped in some kind of underground complex. Before they ended up there though, they bumped into an Octoling, who ended up being trapped down there with them. Long story short, that Octoling helped them escape back to the surface and is now a member of the new Squidbeak Splatoon and is currently sitting in this room. Agent 4, I'd like you to meet, Agent 8."

Katsuo looked at Marie for a few moments before he turned his gaze onto Agent 8. The Octoling smiled at Agent 4 and gave a small wave. "Hi Agent 4, it's nice to meet you!" She said as cheerfully as she could. Katsuo felt his face heat up slightly.

"Nice to meet you too Agent 8!" He said, also trying to sound as cheerful as he could.

"Right, so with introductions out of the way, are we gonna resolve the issue of who's gonna teach 8 about how things work in Inkopolis?" Agent 3 asked, leaning back in her chair. "Cause I sure as cod can't, I've gotta go see how my parents are doing and then get back on patrol. The Cap'n can't do it cause… well he's Cap."

"Agent 3!"

"Just saiyan'."

"Pearl and I need to get to the studio in the next hour or so for the morning news." Marina said.

"I thought you said today was your day off." Agent 3 asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Turns out that's tomorrow, we've just got a late start today." Pearl added with a slight grumble, her expression soured slightly.

"Don't worry Pearl, we're gonna have a great day today!" Marina said as cheerfully as she could, trying to lift Pearl's spirits. It had its intended effect, Pearl's mood instantly improved.

"Yeah!"

"Well Callie and I can't, she's gotta be at a photo shoot in half an hour and I've got a commercial to shoot in an hour, so we can't do it." Marie added. Katsuo's eyes instantly widened as far as they could, and his gaze snapped to the squid sister closest to him. _Then that just leaves…_

Callie, who'd been sitting on a beanbag until now, suddenly shot to her feet, eyes twinkling with excitement as she looked at Marie.

"I know! Agent 4 can show her around!"

Katsuo just looked at Callie and then turned his head to look at Agent 8. He blinked when he saw her smiling at him. Then she spoke.

"I'm fine with that."

* * *

 **And that's it for my first chapter, thank you so much for reading! Sorry if it ended in a bit of an awkward place, but I hope you enjoyed it regardless! Please do leave a review if you enjoyed, and I hope to see you in the next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello and welcome to chapter two. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and will enjoy this one as well. Thank you to everyone who favourited, followed and/or reviewed, it really means a lot to me.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo Expansion.**

* * *

"So how long am I going to have to do this for?" Katsuo asked, as he struggled to keep his annoyance out of his voice as he leaned forward in the chair he was sitting in. The source of his annoyance was mainly the fact that the whole 'show someone how to fit in with a completely different society than the one they're used' thing had been dropped on him with little-to-no warning, along with the fact he was basically forced by circumstance to say yes. Even though Pearl and Marina had the next day off, one day wasn't enough to introduce someone to a whole new society and their daily work schedules would make it basically impossible to be able to effectively teach 8 how Inkopolis worked.

 _If It hadn't been Marie, or rather anyone in this room, asking me to do this, I would've said no, since my entire life schedule has just been thrown in the dumpster._ He sighed mentally. _And I don't want the biggest idols of Inkopolis to think I'm a jerk._

"Until Agent 8 feels like she fits in." Marie said, now sitting down on one of the sofa's. Everyone, sans Agent 8 who was busy getting changed, was still in the lounge.

"That could take ages." Katsuo replied, almost sounding like he was complaining. "And how exactly am I supposed to help her 'fit in'? What exactly am I supposed to do?" He asked, looking unsure with a small hint of annoyance. Before any of the others could even begin to think of what to say, Pearl cut in.

"My advice? _Show_ her how things work in Inkopolis, don't just try and explain them to her, she'll probably have no idea what you're on about. It's how I taught Marina about Inkopolis." Pearl explained, adopting a more serious tone. "And remember she'll want to know everything she can about Inkopolis, so she's gonna ask a lot of questions. And also, be patient. We don't know how long it's going to take for her to understand Inkopolis, so you're gonna have to be there to help her while she figures it out. But I reckon you can handle it 4, and if you ever need help, don't hesitate to ask." She said, giving Katsuo a thumbs up. Katsuo gave a nod, he'd been paying close attention to what she'd been saying, albeit with a resigned look on his face.

 _Since I'm stuck doing it, I guess I might as well do the best I can, since I doubt these guys would like it if I screwed up teaching Agent 8 about Inkopolis. Maybe she'll pick it all up really quickly and I'll just have to do this whole thing for like a week. Then I can get back to ranked._ Katsuo thought. "Thank you Pearl. If I need help, I'll let you know."

"Can I give one other piece of advice?" Marina asked. Katsuo nodded. "This might sound a bit odd but… well… it'd probably help if you became her friend." The boy blinked once and frowned slightly.

"How exactly would that help?" He asked.

"Agent 8 only really knows 3 people she could call friends. Me, Pearl and the Captain, which means-"

"Hey what about me?" Agent 3 interrupted, her voice filled with false indignancy. "I was in the Metro too!"

"Except you only showed up at the end, were knocked unconscious, mind controlled, then knocked unconscious again. I don't exactly see how 8 could've gotten to know you that well." Pearl pointed out. "Oh also didn't you fight her before you guys ended up down there?" Agent 3 blinked and then sheepishly scratched the back of her head.

"Oh right… forgot about that… not exactly the best grounds for a friendship, now that I think about it." She admitted. With the interruption done, Marina continued.

"8 is going to feel lonely, and on top of that like an outsider to Inkopolis, which will make it harder for her to get used to life here since she'll feel unable to approach strangers and talk to them to try and make friends. It's how I felt when Pearl first started showing me around, although I had the added worry of someone recognising I was an Octoling which could've ended up with me being kicked out of the city. Once I became friends with Pearl though, I felt like I started to get used to and understand Inkopolis more quickly. Mainly because there was someone I knew I could talk to, someone I could trust, that would be there for me when I needed them. It made me feel like I wasn't completely alone anymore." Pearl had a strange look on her face, a mix between embarrassment and happiness.

"T-Thanks Marina." She said, smiling as she did so. Marina returned the gesture before turning back to Katsuo, who looked somewhat confused by their exchange and some of what Marina was saying.

"So, if I become her friend, it'll make it easier for her to get used to Inkopolis?" He asked.

"I'd imagine so. If it helped Marina, it should help Agent 8." Marie added in.

"And hey, you both get to make a new friend so it's a win-win!" Callie said cheerfully, fist pumping the air.

"And also, if she becomes your friend, you'll be able to introduce her to your friends, who'll hopefully become her friends." Marina added. Katsuo blinked and then awkwardly smiled.

"Uh yeah… right… my friends… got it." _All three of them._ "Okay… there's something that's been bugging me for a while." He looked at Marina. "Um… how do I say this… why exactly did you… well… quit the Octarian army? Also, what about Agent 8? Is she no-longer part of the Octarian army? Why'd she leave? Also, what's this underground or metro or whatever you guys keep talking about?"

"The Deepsea Metro, it's where Agent 3, 8 and the Captain ended up, but we're not sure how." Marina's expression and tone then turned more serious. "Our souls were freed by the Calamari Inkantation. After that, neither of us could even begin to think of continuing to live under the oppression of Octarian Society. So that's why I came to the surface and it's how I met Pearl on Mt Nantai" She explained. Katsuo stared at Marina for a few moments, surprised by her sudden shift in tone.

"Calamari... Inkantation…?" His eyes widened. "Wait… is that the song you two were singing in my fight with Octavio?" He asked, looking at Callie and Marie. The squid sister's nodded.

"The Inkantation has unusual effects that we don't fully understand. One of them seems to be it frees the souls of any Octarian that hears it." Marie explained.

"It was played during my fight with Octavio as well. Huh, guess some things stay the same." Agent 3 added in.

"Just one last question, if she buys anything, do I have to pay for it?" Katsuo asked, quietly hoping the answer would be no. Marina shook her head.

"We've given her some money to get started. And once she starts playing turf wars I think she'll be fine." She explained. Katsuo let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Any further conversation was prevented by the fact Agent 8 had just gotten back to the main area of the apartment. She was now wearing a basic shirt and a headband with regular shoes.

 _She looks really cute._ Katsuo felt his face heat up again at that thought. _Ga-wha-stop it! Y-Yeah she's cute… but I… ugh I hate my brain sometimes._

"I'm ready." She said, her voice bearing nervousness, curiosity and thinly veiled excitement.

"Damn girl you lookin' Fresh!" Pearl exclaimed, giving the newest Agent a thumbs up. "Man, you're gonna be one of the freshest squ- kids out there, just you wait!" Marie playfully rolled her eyes whilst Marina and Callie smiled.

"Oh, I need to take you shopping one day 8!" Callie said cheerfully, practically bouncing in her seat. "There's so many fresh outfits that would look super cool on you!"

"Calm down Callie, 4 still needs to teach her how Inkopolis works." She glanced at the clock. "Callie, I think you should get going." Callie blinked and glanced at the clock.

She promptly went into full panic mode.

"AAAHH I'm gonna be late!" She nearly screamed as she rushed around the apartment to gather what she needed. In a surprising blur of speed, she managed to get everything together and bolted to the door. "Good luck agent 4, Have a great day!" She then shot out the door, forgetting to close it behind her. Marie sighed.

"I swear…" She muttered. She glanced at Katsuo. "Well 4 I think it's best you get going. I think it'll be easier to show 8 around before the square gets too populated." Katsuo sighed and nodded.

"Agent 8." He then paused before he looked at her. "What's your real name?" He asked. 8 looked at him for a moment before she frowned as she worked through her fragmented memory and tried to find if she had an actual name.

"I… I can't remember…" She said, her efforts impeded by a sudden dull pain in her head. It faded quickly once she stopped searching her memory. Katsuo just nodded.

"Okay. I'll just call you 8, that okay?"

"That's… fine. You're… agent 4?" She asked. He nodded.

"My actual name is Katsuo, but feel free to call me what is easier." He said, forcing a smile. "Well, let's get going!" He added, trying to inject some enthusiasm into his voice. _Might as well pretend to be happy about this, since I'll probably get grilled by Marie if she finds out I'm grumpy around her._

"Good luck you two." Marie said.

"Yeah good luck! Show 'em who's the freshest kid on the block!" Pearl said enthusiastically. "Soon as we've got time, we'll be sure to turf war it up with you!"

"You'll be fine! Good luck!" Marina added in, merely giving a small wave. "See you soon!"

"Good luck to the both of you." Cap'n Cuttlefish said.

"Do your best squiddo." Agent 3 said with a smirk.

"Thanks." Katsuo said with a nod.

"Thank you very much!" Agent 8 said with a small smile. Katsuo walked out the door and Agent 8 quickly followed. She closed the door when she left and the two started making their way towards the square. Katsuo glanced at 8 as the two walked side by side.

 _Well… here goes nothing._

* * *

 **And that's chapter 2! Sorry it's a bit shorter than the first one, but I hoped you enjoyed nonetheless! Again, please leave a review telling me what you thought , once again thank you for reading my story, and I hope to see you in the next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello and welcome to chapter 3! Thank you everyone who followed, favourited and/or reviewed this story, and I hope you've been enjoying it so far! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo Expansion**

* * *

"Gaaah I can't believe that just happened! They're even cooler than I thought!"

"Whuh?" Katsuo blurted out in confusion as his head snapped to the side to look at Agent 8, who looked like she was about to burst from excitement. The two had barely left the apartment building when she'd suddenly blurted that out.

"The Squid Sisters! They're so cool! Like Marie's just so… cool and Callie's also really… cool! I just… I… I always thought about what it'd be like to meet them but I…" 8 was practically bouncing up and down as she walked and blathered on about the Squid Sisters for a few minutes straight. Most of what she said was 'really' and 'cool' and variations of those words. Katsuo leaned backwards slightly and just stared at her, but a ghost of a smile was playing on his lips. "It's just… I-"She suddenly stopped talking when she saw the look on Katsuo's face. After a moment, she realised that he'd been staring at her from the start of her excitement fuelled rant, her face turned scarlet and she quickly looked away, the small tentacles hanging down the sides of her face swaying as she did so.

"I-I… uh… s-sorry… it's just… when I was in the metro… Cap'n Cuttlefish told me a lot about them… and when I remembered how the Inkantation changed me… I became really eager to meet them… since… they changed my life…" She stammered, her hands fidgeting as she did so. Katsuo looked at her for a few more moments and felt the edges of his mouth twitch upwards slightly before he looked back down the street. _That was really cute._ The thought popped into his head again, still seemingly out of rushed to his cheeks again. _Thanks for being oh-so-helpful brain, as if you haven't said that already. Fine, she's cute. Really cute._ He cheeks heated up even more. _I said it, now shut up._ He then shot her a glance.

"It's fine." He said. "Let's just get to the square." He added, stretching his arm above his head as he covered his mouth whilst he yawned. He pulled out his phone and quickly pulled up the directions to the Squid Sisters' apartment, which he was going to read backwards to get back to the square. _It should work._ He paused. _Hopefully._ He then felt something gently prod him in the shoulder and he looked up to see 8 shyly recoil slightly before she glanced down the street.

"Um… what is that?" She asked, pointing at something at the end of the street. Katsuo frowned and looked at where she was pointing.

"What?" His frowned deepened for a few seconds until he noticed what she was pointing at. "That's a car." He said, looking back at 8 with a slightly raised eyebrow. 8 frowned and tilted her head slightly.

"A… car? What's a… car?" She asked. Katsuo raised his eyebrow even further.

"Haven't you heard of cars before?" He asked. 8 slowly shook her head.

"No… unless I have… but I haven't remembered… my memory is still a bit all over the place…" She explained.

"Your memories' all over the place? What do you mean?" Katsuo asked with a hint of interest in his voice.

"When I fell into the Deepsea Metro… I lost my memory somehow. I've gotten most of it back, but I don't think it's, well, ordered properly, since with some of my memories I can't tell if they take place before or after other memories." She explained. Katsuo looked at her for a few moments before he gave a short nod. _I wonder what this Deepsea Metro is… Maybe I'll ask 8 or Pearl later. Maybe._

"Okay so… basically a car is… it's a thing people use to move around really quickly that you get to drive, which is you make it go where you want as fast as you want. You also get trunks, which are used to carry… things and stuff around and you also get buses, which are used to carry people around." He explained as quickly as he could, waving his hands about slightly as he spoke, without stumbling over his words. He also had forced a smile. "Got it?" He asked. _Please don't ask me more about it…_

"Move around really quickly… like a train?" She asked. Katsuo internally groaned but nodded.

"Yes, except cars can't hold as many people and you can actually control them yourself." He explained, yawning as he did so.

"How fast can they go?"

"Huh?" Katsuo blinked in confusion. He then frowned as he racked his brain for an answer. "Uh… decently fast I guess? It depends on which kind of car it is… I think." He added, trying to keep his irritation at the entire situation out of his voice. He blinked again when he saw what looked like disappointment on 8's face and he felt a pang in his chest.

"Oh, okay." She said dejectedly. The two then started walking again, albeit Katsuo's walking looked heavy and he seemed to be dragging his feet somewhat. He also had to force his eyes fully open every few seconds. 8 did bombard him with questions as they walked, notably about things like traffic lights when they got to an intersection, flowers when they passed a flower shop, Jellyfish when they saw a group of them across the road and also about planes when one flew over. Eventually thought she asked. "Where are we going again?"

"Inkopolis square." Katsuo replied, shaking his head slightly to try and help keep his eyes open.

"Inkopolis… square?" The nervous excitement returned to her face. "I-Is that where you can play turf wars and stuff?"

"Yes." Was his answer as he looked at his phone. 8 looked at the back of his head for a while as she struggled to come up with another question.

"So… what's it like? Inkopolis square, I mean."

"It's cool. Got clothes shops, a weapon shop, a food place and access to battling." He replied curtly.

Then his nose started to feel tingly.

Katsuo's top lip curled upwards slightly as the feeling intensified and his face started to scrunch up. He remined like this for a few seconds before…

"A _CHOO_!" Katsuo sneezed loudly, coming to a stop, but that wasn't the most noticeable thing about it. What stood out more was how high-pitched it was, and his face started doing an impressive impression of a tomato. He looked at 8 and his face turned crimson when he saw she was struggling to hold her giggling in. "H-Hey! W-What are you laughing at?!" He stammered, the red on his face darkening even more from hearing 8's giggling.

"I'm so sorry! I-It's just… you looked really funny when you did that." She explained after her giggles had subsided. Katsuo glared at her to the best of his ability but the colour of his face hardly made him seem intimidating. With a huff, he walked off, seemingly pouting as he did so. 8 followed swiftly behind. After a minute or so, and after Katsuo's face returned to its natural colour, they rounded a corner… and arrived in the Square.

"And here we are!" Katsuo said with fake cheer and enthusiasm as they rounded the corner to the square. "Inkopolis square! The place everyone goes for battles and to look fresh." He added, dramatically throwing his arms in the air, which he struggled with slightly due to his tiredness. "Any questions before we get started?" 8 gawked as she looked around, awestruck by everything in the square. Katsuo watched as she turned her head in every possible direction and stared at things for what seemed like ages. Her attention was particularly drawn to the large screens and the various adverts and commercials being played on them. Even though it was clear she had no idea what they were about, they enthralled her all the same.

"Whoa…" she whispered. "It's amazing… it's so cool…" She looked at Katsuo. "I… I don't know where to start…" She breathed. Katsuo clapped his hands together.

"Well, good thing I'm here then!" He said as cheerfully as he could. A hint of sarcasm leaked into his voice, but he doubted 8 would be able to pick up on it. "Okay then, a quick rundown of the square and all the various and wonderful things in it. On your right is the Shoal." He said, pointing to the large building. "You wanna jump into a battle with a group of nearby Inklings? You head to the Shoal. There's also the Crust Bucket." He pointed at the truck nearby. "Where you can exchange tickets you can find for various foodstuffs that lend a boost to your rewards earned from matches like more money and stuff. We clear so far?" 8 still had a completely awestruck expression on her face and she simply nodded. A million questions were building up in her mind, but right now she was more focused on taking in everything she could.

"Directly in front of you is the battle lobby. That's where you got to jump into Ranked battles of Turf war." He explained. 8's eyes lit up at the mention of turf wars.

"Turf war…" She started to bounce slightly from excitement.

"Right, on your left is the Galleria." He turned and walked over, prompting 8 to scramble after him. "We'll go in and I'll give you a look around, got it?" 8 just nodded. _Right let's make this quick, since I know Sheldon is going to take forever._ Thus began Katsuo's lightning quick tour of the 3 shops, albeit due to his current weariness, it was slower than he wanted.

"Ye Olde Cloth Shoppe, for all your shirt and jacket needs."

"How dost thou, cousin?" Jelfronzo asked as the pair entered.

"Shella Fresh for shoes."

"Dude! Welcome to Shella Fresh!" Bisk said in his usual tone as the pair entered.

"Headspace for headgear." The pair, well Katsuo dragging 8, then rushed into Ammo knights so fast Flow didn't even have time to say hello.

"Um… why did we rush through that…?" 8 asked.

"Because they'll all give a long-winded speech about how you're not 'fresh' enough to buy stuff so I just gave you a quick peek." Katsuo explained. 8 frowned.

"W-What are you talking about?"

"When you start off battling, you need to get to a certain level of 'freshness' before any of them sell you anything. Since you're new to Inkopolis, I figured you'd be starting from the bottom, so to speak." Katsuo explained. "And this, is Ammo Knights." He looked over. "Hi Sheldon. This is Agent 8. She's…" Katsuo paused and glanced at 8, who was currently eyeing up all the weapons along the walls. "…A friend." He said after a few moments of silence. "I'm showing her the basics of how things work in Inkopolis and I'm just giving her a quick tour of the shops."

"If there's anything I can do to help, let me know!" Sheldon said cheerfully. "I'll be more than happy to help her understand how the various weapons work!" Katsuo was just about to decline when 8 walked over.

"Um… excuse me… but what is that?" She asked, pointing at a splatter-shot Pro. Katsuo's eyes widened in horror. _Oh no…_

"Ah ha! Well you see that's actually the Splattershot Pro, a very…" and thus he began rambling about the weapon and its various specifications. Katsuo had to do a double take when he saw 8 seemed genuinely interested in what he was saying. _I just take it out for a spin to learn how it works and if I like it or not. Never been a fan of the Splattershot pro… mostly because I suck at aiming precise weapons._

He sighed as he leaned against the wall of the shop and watched Sheldon ramble on at 8. His gaze eventually drifted to solely focus on the Octoling, who had tilted her head slightly and was listening to Sheldon with rapt attention. Katsuo sighed as a thought crossed his mind.

 _I have a crush on her, don't I?_ He thought to himself. _Barely even know her, met her today, and I already like her… doesn't help that she's really cute…_ His face heated up again and he sighed and tilted his head back before he closed his eyes.

 _What have I gotten myself into this time…_

* * *

 **And that's chapter 3! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review telling me what you thought and if there's anything I could improve for the next chapter! Thank you again for reading and I hope to see you next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello and welcome to Chapter 4! Thank you to everyone who followed, favourited or review the previous chapters, it means a lot to me and helps motivate me to keep doing the best I can. Sorry this took a bit longer to come out than the last three chapters, life has been hectic, but I am making a promise here. First off, this story** _ **will**_ **be completed, and secondly, I** _ **will**_ **post a chapter every Sunday from now on at the very** _ **least**_ **. I hope you enjoy the chapter and please leave a review telling me what you thought!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo Expansion.**

"Welcome to the lobby, the place where you choose what kind of battle you want to take part in." Katsuo said to 8, the two of them standing in front of the aforementioned room. Having spent far longer than he'd ever want to in Ammo Knights listening to Sheldon ramble on about weapons, Katsuo's spirits were at an all-time low for the day, albeit he was concealing this behind the façade of cheeriness he had decided to maintain to try and make a good impression on 8. His true feelings were in direct contrast to 8's, who'd listened attentively to everything the horseshoe crab had said, and she'd even asked a few questions here and there. "There's Turf war, ranked and league. There's two maps per mode and they rotate every two hours and so do the game modes for League and Ranked." Katsuo looked at his phone to see the current rotation. "Turf war is…Manta Maria…" He let out a sigh of relief. "And Moray towers… At least it isn't in Ranked battle. Huh it's Rainmaker…" He looked up at 8 and frowned when he saw the odd look on her face which seemed to be a mix of confusion and surprise. "8?" He asked.

"Huh?" She replied, sounding slightly confused as her eyes snapped from the screens showing the stages onto him.

"Did you hear what I just said?" He asked, almost snapping at her. 8 immediately realized that she'd been staring off into space when Katsuo had been explaining something to her, and her face heated up in embarrassment.

"S-Sorry! Y-yeah I did!" She stammered, nodding erratically as she did so. Katsu just raised an eyebrow and he glanced at what she was looking at, realization dawning on his face the moment he saw it. _Huh… I guess she's never seen a ship before._ He thought, pausing for a moment before he launched into his quick and detailed explanation of how the various modes worked, and the differences between Regular, Ranked and League Battles. He also made several lame attempts at humour during his explanation, which, much to his surprise, actually managed to draw a giggle from 8 once or twice. On top of that, he also declared he would be joining her for her Turf war games, so he would be able to give her advice during the match if need-be. What he didn't tell her was he silently hoped this would cut down the time he needed to spend helping her get used to Inkopolis, thus enabling him to get back to the ranked grind.

That and playing Turf war was much better than standing around in the square being bored to death whilst 8 was off having fun, but he didn't mention that either.

She listened with rapt attention for the duration of his explanation and threw in a question here and there regarding various details. "Right." He said upon concluding his speech, smacking his hands together as he did so. "You ready to jump on-in and turf it up?" He asked, making sure to exaggerate the fist-bump he followed up with as much as possible. He also flashed a fake grin at 8 who nodded and did a small fist-pump of her own. Whilst not as exaggerated as Katsuo's, it certainly had more genuine enthusiasm in it.

"Yeah!" She said as enthusiastically as she could.

"Great to hear! Now remember what I said, make sure you don't leave any ground uncovered by ink, and don't leave patches of enemy ink lying around. The smallest amount could possibly mean the difference between winning and losing. Now let's get going!" He added. 8 nodded and smiled at him, which caused his cheeks to heat up slightly.

"I'll do my best!" She said cheerfully. Katsuo led the way and entered the lobby first with 8 close behind. Excitement was practically radiating off the Octoling and there was a small spring in her step. Katsuo switched his .56 Gal out for Splat Duelies and spun them around on his fingers. Whilst he knew dualies were hardly the best choice for Turf War, they were only one of two weapon types he considered himself good at using, the other being the Gal weapons. Part of him wanted to show off to 8, partly to try and impress her and partly just for the sake of showing off. For a moment, he remembered all the times he'd tried to impress girls, only to end up failing miserably and make himself look like an idiot. He dismissed the thought and stopped spinning his dualies before he went over to 8 and was surprised to see what she was holding.

"8… which weapon is that?" He asked, eyeing the odd-looking splatter shot in her hands with confusion and interest. It seemed oddly familiar for some reason, but Katsuo couldn't put his finger on why.

"Oh this?" 8 lifted the weapon a little bit and examined it quickly. "It's an Octoshot, well a replica, since the original one lacks a built-in special ability. It's what I was mostly talking to… Sheldon about whilst we were in his… shop." Katsuo frowned and then his eyes widened. _An Octoshot… never thought I'd see one that wasn't being shot at me._

"Wow… Really? I never heard you talk about it." 8 chuckled slightly and scratched the back of her head.

"Well… that's because I think you fell asleep when we started talking about it…" She pointed out. Katsuo blinked once before his face turned slightly red in embarrassment.

"I-uh-oh I see…" He stammered, glancing about embarrassedly. _Woops._ "I swear I just dozed off for a minute or so…" He muttered. "Yet it still felt like we were in there for ages..." He shook his head, lamenting the fact that he'd dozed for only a brief period and not the entirety of the time they'd spent in Ammo Knights. "Right, not important right now. Let's get to Turf war!" 8 gave a nod in reply.

"Right!" Thus, the two headed off for 8's first ever Turf war. Well, first Turf War where the fate of the world wasn't at stake.

 _Huh, we won._

Was the thought in Katsuo's mind as Judd and Lil' Judd announced the winners and losers. His thoughts reflected his attitude towards winning in Turf War, ever since he'd started playing Ranked, he'd more-or-less stopped caring about Turf War. Normally he wouldn't care too much about winning or losing as he tended to focus more on his own personal score, albeit he wouldn't play to the best of his ability.

But these were no normal circumstances, and Katsuo showed it in his efforts, scoring top of the team in points and splats with 8 in third for points. He smirked slightly as he saw his score and spun his dualies around in a small sign of celebration. He then looked at 8 and felt his hearts skip a beat.

8 was practically radiating joy and excitement, clearly having enjoyed her first Turf war. Katsuo quickly ran what he'd noticed of her performance over in his mind, and he had to say he was mildly impressed. Despite a few mistakes and the occasional avoidable splat, she'd performed solidly, certainly better than other people in their first Turf war that Katsuo had seen.

"Great work 8!" He said, walking over to her with a half-smirk half-smile. "Have fun?"

"Yeah!" She beamed at him, causing his cheeks to warm. "Turf wars are awesome… can we play more?" A quiet groan sounded in the back of Katsuo's mind before he answered.

"Sure!" He said, putting on the fake cheer once again, but this time it felt just a little bit less forced.

Katsuo blinked as he looked at the post-match results, a blank stare on his face as his brain processed what he was seeing. They had won, yes, but that wasn't what he was focused on. Specifically, he was focused on his position on the scoreboard.

 _8 did better than me._

He blinked again as he stared at the scores. An odd feeling was welling up in the pit of his stomach, something he didn't recognise yet did at the same time, and it intensified the longer he stared at the score. The fact they'd won again wasn't of interest to him anymore, he was just focused on the scores. Part of him was annoyed that 8, a total newcomer to Inkopolis and Turf wars, had beaten him, someone who'd been battling since the day he turned 14, in score in her second ever match. After all, he had more experience, so he should do better right? He was also partly amazed at how well she was doing, and these two conflicting feelings were clashing with each-other over which was more prominent in his mind. After a few more moments of staring at the scores, he reached a decision.

 _I'm going to do better than her in the next match._

If there was one thing Katsuo really liked, it was winning. His desire to win, to compete, to be the best, he'd always carried it into everything in life, even the silliest or most mundane of things.

And because of his competitive nature, getting a worse score than 8 was losing.

For a moment, he realized his current attitude was rather absurd. He then proceeded to swiftly abandoned dismiss this thought as absurd and he marched on to the next Turf War.

 _That's better… kinda._

Katsuo felt a muted sense of satisfaction when he saw his score was higher than 8's. Even though they'd lost, he was still pleased he'd managed to beat her in score, even though his 'competition' with her seemed completely one-sided. _Well now I just need to keep ahead of her in score. Shouldn't be too hard._

Katsuo soon found out it was much harder than he thought.

Katsuo was by no means stupid, at least by Inkling standards, and he doubted 8 was either. If anything, he suspected she might be smarter than him, based purely on the fact she was an Octoling. So, when he'd noticed the pattern that their Turf wars had settled into after the first 5 or so, he'd came to a conclusion.

8 was trying to beat him in score as well.

The pattern was clear; he'd score more than 8, 8 would respond by scoring more than him, he'd respond by scoring more than her, then she'd respond by scoring more than him. Sometimes it would break, Katsuo would beat 8 in score two or three times in a row, then 8 would react accordingly, but then it would quickly return to normal for a few matches before it broke again.

But throughout it all, the differences in their scores were small, a gap of only a handful of points or so separating them. Whilst not all the games had been victories, Katsuo cared more about beating 8 than beating the enemy team, and he suspected she felt the same way.

Katsuo hadn't mentioned it to her of course, keeping their brief conversations between battles more focused on anything 8 needed help with. Except for one conversation after a game nearly an hour in, when their competition seemed to have reached its peak…

"Nice work 8!" He said, giving her a thumbs up and a small smile. They'd won the game and Katsuo had barely managed to beat 8 by a few points. Feeling rather smug, his mouth started moving before his brain did "Almost as good as me." He said with a hint of arrogance. When his brain fully processed what he'd said, he mentally kicked himself and opened his mouth to talk but before he could get a word in edge-wise 8 spoke up.

"Almost?" She asked, raising an eyebrow slightly as a small smirk snuck onto her face. "I'd say I'm as good as you." Katsuo blinked and stared at her as his eyes widened slightly. Sure, he'd noticed that over the course of the last hour or so that her shyness had been giving way to a much more confident attitude, but he hadn't expected _this._ After a moment of staring however, he smirked back, and gripped his dualies confidently.

"Well, let's find out, shall we?"

"Wait so Pearl just bought you an apartment?"

"Yeah!"

"I mean… I guess it makes sense that she's rich…"

Currently the two were outside an apartment building. After a further hour of intense competition in Turf wars with no real overall winner, he'd decided to take a break and introduce 8 to some of the more mundane parts of Inkopolis life, like public transport, how her phone works, gear ordering along with a quick explanation of how gear chunks work and other more uninteresting stuff that she'd need to know to go about her daily business. Since it was nearing the end of the day, Katsuo had decided to head home, and coincidentally, it turned out 8 was now living in the same building as Katsuo and his family.

"Well… I guess I'll meet you here tomorrow?" Katsuo asked. 8 nodded and the two started walking towards the building but just before they entered, 8 stopped.

"Hey Katsuo…?"

"Yeah?" He turned his head to look at her, stopping when he did so.

"I…" She paused. "Thank you. For helping me out with getting used to Inkopolis…" She beamed at him, causing his face to heat up.

"I-it's fine." He said, looking away as he blushed. The two started walking towards the door again and in the back of Katsuo's mind there was a lingering thought.

 _Well one day down… not sure how many left to go…_

 **And that's the chapter! I'm so sorry this took ages to come out, but as I promised, a chapter a week at least from here on out until the story is done! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and I Hope to see you next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello and welcome to chapter 5! Thank you again to everyone who's favourited, followed and/or reviewed this story, you're all awesome! Now on with chapter 5!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo Expansion**

* * *

 _*Late-morning, the next day, Inkopolis Square. *_

"So, what exactly is this?" Katsuo asked with a raised eyebrow and a faint hint of curiosity. The object of his attention was a fairly large box with a red bow on it that seemed to have just been dumped in the middle of the square. He didn't recognize the wrapping on it, which was an odd pattern of strange faces, and as he examined it 8 crouched and read the tag hanging from the side. Her eyes widened the moment she started reading, but soon she was smiling at the message.

" _Young Squire._

 _The tokens of my esteem._

 _Never forget your dreams._

 _Yours sincerely._

 _Iso Padre."_

"Who's it from?" Katsuo asked.

"A friend." 8 replied after looking at the tag for a few moments. During down-time between test-chambers, 8 had spent a fair amount of time in conversations with Cap'n Cuttlefish and Iso Padre on a whole manner of topics. These ranged from music, to the Metro, to the Squid sisters and many other topics, a fair few of them rather nonsensical. Although most of the conversations, due to the state of 8's memory, had often ended up being just a string of questions for the other person to answer.

Katsuo frowned. _"Agent 8 only really knows 3 people she could call friends…"_ Marina's voice echoed in his head, that sentence having been committed to memory… along with nearly everything else that Pearl and Marina had said to him the previous day. Partly because he figured it would come in handy, partly because he was a huge fan of them and meeting them in person had been a dream come true for him, although his grumpiness at the time had somewhat dulled that.

"Who's your friend?" He asked.

"Iso Padre. I met him in the Metro." 8 explained as she started to unwrap the box. Katsuo silently groaned. _There's that Metro again…_ Part of him just wanted to ask for more detail about what it was, but he decided not to, mainly because he still wanted to get the whole teaching thing over and done with, and he failed to see how asking about that would help.

"Iso Padre huh… nice name…" He muttered. 8 didn't hear him over the sound of paper tearing, and soon she'd opened the box and found the gear inside. She gleefully but carefully examined each bit, having successfully completed every test chamber, she'd earned each bit of gear. Katsuo just stood and watched, initially with mild interest that soon faded to boredom and faint irritation. He checked the rotation and scowled slightly when he saw it was Clam Blitz. He was so close to ranking up, a single win would get him into A, but he had 3 cracks in his meter.

But then he saw the Octoling shades and he frowned. He walked around to where 8 had put them before he squatted down next to them. "Hey 8."

"Hmm?" 8 looked up from examining the Old Timey hat. "Yeah?"

"Mind if I look at these for a moment?" He asked, pointing to the glasses.

"Y-yeah sure!" 8 said with a quick nod of her head. Katsuo picked up the shades and then examined them for a good while.

"These are pretty cool…" He muttered to himself, but it was just loud enough for 8 to hear.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Katsuo quickly replied. He stood up and examined them further as he turned them over in his hands. He then put them on and looked around. "Whoa…" He said as he turned his head repeatedly. 8 just watched him with a mixture of slight confusion and mild interest.

Katsuo then took the shades off and held them in front of his face. But before he could put them back down, an idea popped into his head.

 _Do a cool pose._

Staring at the shades, he immediately acted on the thought by slowly and 'coolly' sliding the shades back onto his face before he tried (and failed) to strike a cool pose. He smirked.

And immediately blushed when he saw 8 was giggling at him.

"W-What are you laughing at!?" Katsuo stammered, almost ripping the glasses off his face.

"Your pose… it was funny…" 8 replied, trying to stifle her giggles but failing miserably. Katsuo felt his face heat up even more as he tried to glare at her. He was experiencing conflicting feelings. On one hand, he was embarrassed, and on the other hand, he felt like smiling due to how cute 8's giggling was. Although he wanted to reply with a sarcastic remark, he forced himself to keep his mouth shut. Instead he pouted.

"I thought it was pretty cool…" He muttered to himself as he put the glasses back in the box. "Anyway, what are you going to do with that gear?"

"Take it back to my apartment." 8 said, picking up the Old timey gear set and the Null armour set. She then looked at her arms and then down at the remaining set, the Neo Octoling armour. Before she could even ask, Katsuo picked it up, suppressing a sigh as he did so.

"Well let's get going then, shall we?"

* * *

One quick round-trip to her apartment later and the pair were now in front of the main lobby building again. "Right, I think it's time for you to see Grizzco."

"Grizzco?"

"Part-time job you can work. You collect Golden eggs from Salmanoids, put 'em in a basket, then get paid and what-not. There's a bunch more details, but once we get there you'll find out more."

And thus 8 found herself at the gates of Grizzco, ready to take up her part-time job.

* * *

 **I'm so sorry this chapter is much shorter than usual, and ends rather awkwardly, but I will make it up! The next chapter will be double the usual length, and there will be two chapters next week! I promise! Anyway, once again, thanks for reading, I hope to see you next time, and please leave a review telling me what you thought!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello and welcome to chapter 6! As I promised, this is the first of two chapters that will come out this week! Thank you to everyone who's followed, favourite and/or reviewed, it means a lot to me! I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo expansion.**

* * *

 _Not again…_

Katsuo scowled as he looked at his teams scores, specifically when he saw 8 had scored more points than him. He didn't notice that the difference between their scores was only 5 points as he'd looked away before he'd seen that. They'd won the game, but that didn't matter to him. With a huff, he got ready for the next match.

"Well I guess I broke your streak eh?" 8 asked cheerfully yet with a cheeky smile as she walked up to him. Quickly hiding his scowl, Katsuo forced a smile as he looked at her.

"Yeah I guess!" He said with fake cheer, suppressing his irritation at losing to her. "Well it won't happen again." 8 kept up her smile, but a hint of concern was written across her face as she looked at him.

"Let's see about that…"

* * *

"Told ya… I wouldn't lose to you again." Katsuo said as he got his breath back.

"I see that. Katsuo are you okay?"

"What? Yeah I'm fine." Katsuo said quickly and dismissively. He'd managed to beat 8 in the following match, causing his anger from losing to her, which came about because of the more extreme parts of his competitive streak kicking in, to evaporate. A small part of him dreaded jumping into another match because he was worried he wouldn't be able to beat her twice in a row, but more specifically his strong dislike of losing had kicked in. On top of that, he was starting to get tired from giving the matches his all. Instead of mulling it over in his head however and considering some rest, he instead jumped into the next match, his focus solely on their little competition.

He hadn't noticed 8's concern yet.

* * *

Katsuo and 8 had fallen back into the pattern from the previous day, except Katsuo had started to get angry every time he lost to 8. On the flip-side, whenever he beat her, he would practically radiate happiness with a hint of boasting, albeit he still kept it under control. Initially though Katsuo would just get irritated at losing but quickly brush it off before the next match. As the afternoon progressed however, it got worse. Soon Katsuo's irritation turned to genuine anger, not at 8, but at himself for losing to her, and soon even winning wasn't enough to fully restore his cheer. Compounding the problem was his rapidly growing exhaustion from throwing every ounce of effort he could at the matches, something he'd started barely half-an-hour after the two started playing Turf War.

When asked by 8 if he was doing okay though, he would brush her off by saying he was okay and was having fun, but soon he started to get slightly hostile.

All of this came to a head at the end of a match nearly two-hours in where Katsuo was on a losing streak…

* * *

Katsuo was almost gasping for air as he looked at the results screen. The match had just ended, and he was eagerly awaiting the results. He didn't notice that 8 was looking at him with concern. Judd and Lil' Judd made their judgements and… Katsuo and 8's team won by a hair's breadth. The results then shift to their individual scores… and Katsuo's eyes widened.

He'd lost to 8. For the fourth time in a row.

There was a two-point difference between them but Katsuo didn't see that. All he saw was that 8 had done better than him again, and he yelled.

It wasn't a sentence, or even a word. He just let out a yell of rage before he hurled his dualies away without thinking. There was a loud thud as they struck the ground and bounced a few times before stopping. Thankfully they were both still intact, but Katsuo didn't care as he slumped to the ground. He hung his head and just glared at the floor.

"Katsuo, we're taking a break." 8 said firmly, having witnessed his whole display. Katsuo shot her a glance before he got to his feet.

"Yeah sure." He muttered and grabbed his dualies. A small part of him was already burning with embarrassment, but he ignored it in favour of his anger. There was total silence as the two headed back to the lobby and this continued until they left it.

"Katsuo… what's wrong?" 8 asked with concern written all over her face. The two were now standing near the middle of the square.

"Nothing. I'm fine." He replied automatically and almost bluntly, his face turned away from her. 8 looked at him for a moment, unsure as to what to say, before she cautiously spoke to him.

"Katsuo… you just hurled your weapon at the ground and yelled at the same time." 8 countered. "And before that you were getting angry whenever…" she hesitated, unsure as to how to phrase it in a way that wouldn't make him even angrier. "…Whenever my score was higher than yours."

"No, I wasn't." He replied as he crossed his arms. "I was just… irritated."

"With what?"

Katsuo tensed up slightly in response and he felt his cheeks start to burn from embarrassment. "Because… I…" He paused for a few moments as he struggled to come up with a reply. Finally, he sighed and slumped his shoulders. "I… I don't know."

"So why are you getting angry then?" 8 asked, sounding both confused and concerned. "We're not really competing for anything." Katsuo tensed up again before he sighed.

"Because I… I don't like losing." He said. "And I kept losing to you in score." 8 frowned.

"But I also lost to you." She pointed out. "We also won most of our games." Katsuo tensed up again.

"I… I know… it's just I…" He sighed again. "I wanted to win. But I wanted to win more than you, so whenever I lost, it really frustrated me. I-I… I just got angry because… I was losing, and I just wanted to win all the time." There was more Katsuo wanted to say, but he had no idea how to phrase it. How he was throwing everything he had at the matches because of how badly he wanted to win. He knew it made no sense, but that's how he felt. That desire to win, and how he just hated losing and did everything he could to avoid it.

"You're extremely competitive." 8 said. "And because of it… you took our whole competition super seriously?" She asked. Katsuo then looked at her for the first time since they left the lobby. He stared at her for a few moments before he sighed and nodded.

"Yeah… I did…" He replied. The two stood silently in the middle of the square, both of them unsure as to what to say. Katsuo then spoke up. "I know it's a bit of a silly competition but... I just really threw myself at it… and It was those last 4 games. It's just… recently I feel like I've been getting worse at battling… and I thought I'd be able to beat you more than you were beating me… but then those last 4 games just… at the end I felt like giving up… because how could I lose that badly that many times in a row…" He felt his mood was rapidly worsening as he spoke. 8 looked at him, her eyes wide as her brain scrambled to think of something to say to try and help the situation.

But as she ran what Katsuo had just said over in her mind, something confused her.

"Katsuo… you know our scores were only a point or so apart for those last few games, right?" 8 asked with a hint of confusion in her voice. Katsuo's decent into broodiness was abruptly halted and when his brain fully processed what 8 had said he felt his face heat up again from embarrassment.

"I… uh… I was not aware of that, no…"

"That's also true for the rest of our games, aside from the odd one. The biggest difference in points I can remember was about… 5?" She pointed out as realization dawned on her face and a small smile starting to lift the corners of her mouth. Katsuo turned red from embarrassment.

"I… did not notice that…" He said awkwardly. 8 raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you look at the scores?" She asked, the smile even bigger now. Katsuo sheepishly shook his head.

"I just… looked at the positions of the names on the board…" He said meekly. "That's all I was really interested in…" 8 frowned at him.

"Katsuo… did you think that in every game where I did better than you, that I did better by a lot?" She asked, amusement leaking into her voice as she raised an eyebrow. Katsuo wanted to look away from 8, his entire face feeling like it was on fire, but he couldn't.

"I… uh… yeah…" He answered, his brain slowly figuring out what 8 was trying to tell him.

"Okay. So why not check the difference in points anyway so you'd specifically know by how much you were behind me?" She asked in an helpful, not patronizing or sarcastic, tone. Her smile was even wider now. "Then you could've possibly thought of a way to improve your score in the next match, so that you then beat me. Also, don't you think getting angry might worsen your performance as you won't be as focused on what you're doing?"

Katsuo was confused as to why 8 was finding this amusing, but he was more focused on the inferno that was his face as well as the gnawing feeling of wanting to crawl up into a ball from embarrassment. "I… well... it's… I…" He genuinely had no idea how to answer 8's question. "I… I'm an idiot, aren't I?" He asked after a few moments of silence. 8 shook her head.

"I think you just got a bit too focused on winning that you only paid attention to whether the final result was a win or a loss, not how close it was." She said. "You only really cared about the end-goal, and nothing else." Katsuo pondered that for a few moments before he spoke up again, letting out a nervous chuckle as he did so.

"Wow you're… actually 100 percent right about that…" He said. "That's… uh… yeah…" He noticed her smile and he blinked several times before he felt his face get even warmer somehow. _She's really cute when she smiles…_ His eyes widened, and his ears started to burn as he felt hearts pounding in his ears. _Oh, why'd I have to notice that now!_ He mentally shouted at himself. 8 frowned when she saw his expression change and she tilted her head slightly.

"Katsuo are you okay? Your ears look like they're going red…" She asked with concern.

"Oh yeah I'm fine I'm fine! Just dandy, don't worry!" He jabbered. "Don't worry I'm good! I'm fine just… Woo wee I'm all good don't worry!" He said, comically waving his arms about as did so. 8 just started giggling at him, the sound of which made his hearts skip a beat before he also started to laugh. The two stood there, giggling and laughing for a few moments before they quietened down. Katsuo was the first to speak.

"I'm still an idiot, aren't I?" He asked. 8 pressed a finger against her cheek and frowned as she tilted her head slightly.

"Hmm… maybe." She said teasingly, a small smile lifting the edges of her mouth. Katsuo immediately pouted at her, prompting her to giggle,

"Hey that's mean."

"You're the one who called yourself an idiot."

"…Good point." Katsuo paused. He then let out a weary sigh. "Wanna sit down? I'm feeling pretty tired…"

"Sure." 8 replied. The two swiftly relocated to one of the tables located in the plaza. After they sat down, with the table between Katsuo and 8, Katsuo spoke up.

"I'm sorry. I… shouldn't've have… gotten so angry about losing… it… it was stupid."

"It's fine." 8 replied. She paused for a moment to consider her next words. "Maybe next-time we jump into Turf war you don't take it so seriously?" She suggested. Katsuo immediately nodded in reply.

"Good idea." He sighed. "I've just realized I have the same problem when I play ranked battles. I lose, I get angry, then I lose again, and I get even more angry. Then I just end up doing worse. And I feel like I'm going nowhere with ranked, considering how long I've been stuck in B rank. I just feel like I can't get better." He explained. 8 nodded as he spoke, but a few moments after he finished, her eyes widened.

"I have an idea! Why don't you take a break from ranked for a while and instead practice in Turf wars?"

"Huh?"

"Think about it! You said you're worried you're getting worse at battling and can't get better, so why don't you just use Turf wars to practice? That way you can practice without the stress of ranked!" She said cheerfully. "Then once you feel like you've improved, you can go back to ranked and do better! On top of that, you could try working on not getting angry when you lose and instead when you lose, you think about what happened, consider the mistakes you made, and then try to learn from them to give yourself a better chance!" She said, pretty much telling him the method by which she cleared the more difficult test-chambers in the Metro. Katsuo blinked and stared at 8 for a few moments before his eyes widened in realization and he grinned at her.

"8 that's a brilliant idea!" He said cheerfully. He then gently smacked himself on the forehead. "Why didn't I think of that earlier… I guess just throwing myself at ranked over and over isn't all that effective at improving my skill…" He removed his hand and looked at 8. "Thanks 8." He beamed at her. "Thanks a lot." She smiled back.

"It's a pleasure Katsuo." She replied.

"You're really smart you know that?" Katsuo just randomly said. Almost immediately his face heated up and he mentally kicked himself. 8 blinked and looked at him for a second before her cheeks became tinged with pink.

"I… t-thanks Katsuo…" She said, smiling at him. _I just complimented her and got a smile out of it. How did that work._ Katsuo thought, but the goofy grin on his face didn't give away any hint of his thoughts.

"Wanna jump back into Turf wars?"

"Sure, but you need to stay calm okay?"

"Don't worry I will." Katsuo said flippantly. 8 almost immediately fixed him with a serious look, almost a glare, and Katsuo quickly held his hands up. "I won't I won't I promise!" He said as quickly as he could. 8's smile returned.

"Okay." She paused for a moment. "Actually, could we take a break from Turf wars? I'm hungry." Coincidentally at that exact moment, Katsuo felt his stomach growl.

"Yeah same. Well…" He stood up. "Let's get ourselves something to eat."

* * *

"Hey guys!"

"Huh?"

Katsuo looked up from his lunch and he almost dropped his Triple-Fried Galactic Shwaffle when he saw _Pearl and Marina_ walking towards the table, with the latter cheerfully waving at them whilst the former struck a pose as she walked. The pose was ruined slightly by the plastic cup she was holding in her hand. Katsuo just stared as they approached the table. 8 meanwhile happily waved back. She'd also had a Schwaffle, albeit just a Deep-Fried one.

"Hi 8!" Marina said cheerfully as the two stopped next to the table. Katsuo, realizing he was awkwardly staring at Off the Hook with a Schwaffle inches from his mouth, quickly wiped said mouth and put the Schwaffle down.

"O-Oh hey!" He said nervously.

"Hey guys." 8 said with a smile.

"How's it hanging?" Pearl asked. She glanced around and rushed off to grab two chairs from a nearby table. Once she got back, she put them next to each other and casually plopped into one of them whilst Marina sat down in the other one. Internally Katsuo was freaking out. Whilst yes, he'd never heard of the squid sisters prior to meeting Marie, he had heard of Off the Hook, and was a rather big fan of them. "So, how's it been going B?" Pearl asked, looking between 8 and Katsuo.

"Pretty good." 8 said with a smile before she glanced at Katsuo. "I was doing better than Katsuo in Turf war for most of the day." She threw in, glancing at him with a cheeky smile.

"Hey no you weren't! I was beating you too!" Katsuo replied, his nervousness bleeding away as he defended himself. Marina chuckled slightly.

"Good to see you two are getting along." She said with a smile.

"Yeah, nice to see you're not grumpy mc-grumpy squid anymore." Pearl added, smirking at Katsuo. Naturally Katsuo felt his legs turn to jelly and he took a moment to gather himself before he could reply to his favourite member of Off the Hook.

"H-Hey… I wasn't grumpy…" Katsuo then did an internal double-take. _She's right… wait when_ _ **did**_ _I stop being annoyed about showing her around… oh wait… maybe that's a reason why I got so angry today… huh…_ He brought himself back to reality as Pearl spoke.

"I dunno, you seemed pretty grumpy to me." She said, taking a sip from her drink. "So anyway, what'cha think of Inkopolis so far 8? Pretty fresh right?" 8 nodded.

"Yeah! Turf war is really great!" She replied cheerfully.

"What weapon have you been using?" Marina asked, resting her hands on the table.

"I've mostly been sticking to the Octoshot, but I might try chargers out later." 8 explained. Pearl then looked at Katsuo, who was silently eating his Schwaffle.

"What about you… uh…" Pearl blinked when she realized she didn't know Katsuo's name. "Four! That's right you're Agent 4 arent'cha?" She asked. Katsuo quickly swallowed the food in his mouth before he responded.

"I-uh yeah." Katsuo said. "I also have a name you know…" He trailed off as Pearl looked him up and down.

"How'd you join the squadbreak Splatoon?" She asked bluntly.

"Squidbeak Pearl." Marina said, correcting her with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah that. How'd you join up? Marie told us what'cha did, but never how you ended up as an agent in the first place." Pearl asked. She finished her drink and looked at the cup for a few seconds before she plopped it down on the table and then shifted about in her chair slightly.

"I… well I was wandering around the square when I noticed Marie standing over by that grate." He pointed to the grate in question next to Ammo Knights. "And I noticed she seemed to be looking at me and no-one else had noticed her, so I just jumped into the grate and followed her. Then she introduced herself, told me about the Octarians, then I got to work." Pearl nodded.

"Huh, cool. So anyway, how's 4 been treating you 8?" She asked.

"He's doing a good job at teaching me about Inkopolis." 8 replied. "He explained the shops and stuff pretty well, plus the battle modes. He also helped me out on my first few Salmon runs." She smiled at him, causing his cheeks to heat up as he smiled back. Pearl and Marina noticed this and one of them smirked, the other one smiled respectively.

"Has he treated you to anything?" Pearl asked.

"He bought me lunch." 8 replied. Pearl's smirk grew.

"Already buying her lunch 4? Moving a bit fast, aren't you?" She asked. It took Katsuo three seconds to figure out what Pearl meant before his face turned bright red and he looked at Pearl with an expression of shock.

"I... you… P-Pearl!" He stammered. Pearl just raised an eyebrow and chuckled slightly. Meanwhile Marina's eyes had widened, and she was looking between Katsuo and 8 as realization slowly dawned on her face.

"Yeah?" Pearl asked, propping her head up with her elbow on the table. Katsuo just glared at her the best he could before he looked away.

"N-nothing…" He muttered. 8 just looked confused.

"So 8, what's 4 over here shown ya?" Pearl asked.

"Regular battle, Salmon run and the shops."

"Oh, have you been to Ammo knights yet?" Marina asked. 8 nodded.

"Yeah." She replied.

"What weapons did you have a look at?"

"A few. I quite liked the look of the Splat charger, but the other chargers look interesting." 8 explained.

"Oh, you _need_ to try out the Splat Brella, it's great for…" And thus 8, Katsuo, Pearl and Marina hung out for a while, happily chatting away a good portion of the afternoon. Soon however Pearl and Marina left to enjoy the rest of their day off, whilst Katsuo and 8 jumped into a few more Turf wars, albeit this time Katsuo didn't take it as seriously. The two had a great deal of fun, and their little competition grew to be quite fierce, but both of them kept calm about it. Soon however they found themselves outside their apartment building again.

"Thanks for today, I really enjoyed it." Katsuo said with a smile. 8 blinked once before she beamed at him.

"Same to you." She replied. "Although your rolling skills could use a bit of work, I have to say. Rolling off the stage doesn't help."

"That was _once_ 8." Katsuo said with a pout. 8 chuckled.

"I know. But know you know to avoid it in future." She said. Katsuo nodded.

"Yeah, I'll avoid that. So how'd your second day in Inkopolis go?"

"Great!" 8 said cheerfully. "All thanks to you." She added with a smile. Katsuo's ears started burning.

"I… well-" He stopped himself. "Thank you 8." He smiled back, deciding to just take the compliment.

"It's a pleasure."

And the two parted ways for the day.

* * *

Katsuo knocked gently on the door.

"Hold on!" A voice sounded through the door. After a few moments the door opened slightly and a female inkling with green eyes and her hair hanging down popped her head out. "Oh hey Kats!"

"Hey Minami, can we talk? I need help with something." He said. Minami frowned.

"Kats, I've told yo-"

"It's not about ranked." He cut in, knowing what she was about to say. His older sister blinked once before a look of curiosity worked its way onto her face.

"All right, come in then." She said, opening the door to reveal her room, which had musical instruments scattered about in what looked like the result of a hurricane blowing through her room, but was actually his sister's unique way of 'organizing' her room. She closed the door once he was inside and plopped herself down on her chair whilst Katsuo sat on her bed. She was wearing a plain white tee and baggy brown pants.

"Oh, also dinner's in 20 minutes." He said once he got comfortable.

"Is Mom making it or Dad?" Minami asked, fiddling with the electric guitar propped up against her desk.

"Dad."

"Huh. So what'cha wanna talk about?" Minami asked, looking up at her younger brother. Katsuo took a deep breath and braced himself.

"I have a crush on a girl, and I have no idea how to ask her out on a date."

* * *

 **And here it is, as I promised! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did, please leave a review telling me what you thought! Thank you so much for reading my story, and I hope to see you in the next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello and welcome to chapter 7! Thanks again to everyone who has favourited, followed and/or reviewed this story, it means a lot to me! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo Expansion**

* * *

"Could you help me? I have no idea what to do." Katsuo said.

Minami stared at her younger brother with a mixture of surprise and happiness. After a moment she nodded. "Of course. Who's the lucky girl?" She asked with a smile. Katsuo felt his face heat up a bit as he thought of 8 and he opened his mouth to speak but before he actually said anything he had a sudden realization.

 _How am I supposed to explain why her name is a number?_ He then realized something else. _Wait why is she Agent 8 when we don't have an Agent 5,6 or 7?_

"Katsuo? Helloooo? Anyone home?" His sister asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Eight." He said immediately. Minami raised an eyebrow.

"Eight?" She asked, sounding confused. Katsuo nodded.

"That's her name." He said. Minami blinked and stared at him in mild disbelief for a moment.

"Her name… is Eight? That's… interesting…" She remarked, a frown on her face. Katsuo, eager to get the conversation topic away from Eight's name, immediately asked her a question.

"So, what do I do? Do I just ask her out or… get her a gift or something first? Do I just… flirt with her then ask her out?" Katuso asked.

"Hmm… how long have you known her?" His sister asked. Katsuo blinked and nervously rubbed the back of his head.

"Um… two days…" He admitted meekly. "But I really like her! She's just…" He struggled to think of a way to describe her. "Awesome I guess." Was what he eventually settled on. "But I spent most of the day playing Turf wars with her and we also hung out! I… even had lunch with her." He rambled as his sister just smiled at him. He intentionally neglected to mention part of the day had involved hanging out with Off the Hook, mostly because he didn't want his sister freaking out and demanding every little detail of his interactions with them. It mostly stemmed from the fact his sister was an even bigger fan of OTH than he was,

"I see…" She said with a chuckle. "So, you're quite taken with her. Any idea how she feels about you?" Katsuo blinked and quickly thought over the events of the previous day in surprising detail. He searched for anything that would suggest 8 also liked him, his head tilting back so he looked at the ceiling.

"I… she was really friendly to me… and I think she blushed a bit when I called her smart…" He muttered as he remembered various details. Minami caught the last part and she smiled.

"You made her blush, did you?" She asked. Katsuo jerked his head down to look at her, and his eyes widened.

"I… think I did… her face went a bit pink I remember…" He said. His sister's smile grew.

"Forgive me if I sound presumptuous, but I think she likes you." She said. "Of course, I could be wrong, but I hope I'm not. I mean, my boyfriend was the first person to ever make me blush."

"So, you think she likes me back?" Katsuo asked. Minami nodded.

"Pretty sure yeah, but if not well… there's always more squids in the ink." She said. Katsuo immediately realized how inaccurate his sister's saying was with relation to 8 but he didn't mention it.

"Well… I guess I'll have to find out. So… how do I ask her on a date?" He asked.

"You just ask her."

"Minami…"

"I kid, I kid. When asking her out just say something like 'Would you like to go on a date with me?' or 'May I take you out on a date?' or something along those lines, I'll give you more examples if you want. Make sure to have an idea of when and where the date will be, because if you go in without planning that part and they say yes and then ask you where and when, it'll be extremely awkward, trust me I know." She paused for a moment. "Mind if I give some advice?" She asked. Katsuo just nodded and she continued speaking.

"One thing you need to remember squiddo is that just because you're on a date or have been on a date doesn't mean you're a fully-fledged couple yet, unless you ask her to be your girlfriend she says yes. But if you haven't then you're not actually a couple. This is the important part to remember, when you're dating it's like… you're basically testing to see if you and the other person actually could work as a couple and use it as a chance to get to know each other better. It could either work out or it couldn't. Hopefully in your case, it does." She explained. Katsuo just stared at her wide-eyed, feeling a bit overloaded with the information.

"Err… Okay…" He said. "You rambled again." Minami blinked, and she immediately felt embarrassed.

"Oh sorry… I've been trying to work on that… I just like blurting out words, don't I?" She asked. Katsuo shrugged.

"It's fine, I think I got the gist of it. So… how do I… act… I mean treat… no wait what's a good word…" He muttered.

"Compliment her, although you've got that part down already from what you've told me." She said with an amused smile, prompting Katsuo to smile as the image of 8 blushing popped into his head. "But avoid doing it all the time. Don't compliment every tiny little thing she does because that gets very annoying very quickly. But what's most important is you have to be yourself. And your actual self-Kats, not your grumpy ranked obsessed self. She should like you for who you really are, not a personality you're putting on to try and impress her or something." She explained. Katsuo had listened carefully and had nodded slowly during the whole talk but took small offense at the 'grumpy ranked obsessed self' part.

"Hey, I was not grumpy." He stubbornly replied. Minami just raised an eyebrow.

"Then how-come you're almost never happy when you come home?" She asked. Katsuo just looked at her before he looked away and mumbled something. "Also, I'd recommend getting her a gift or two, but save that for when you know what she's interested in. Sweets might be a good idea but avoid too many of them." She added. Katsuo nodded.

"Thank you. I… think I know what to do now." He said.

"Where are you planning to take her for your first date then?" His sister asked.

"I-I don't know yet… I need to think of somewhere…" He frowned as he ran possible locations over in his mind.

"How about Wahoo World?" Minami suggested. "You haven't been there in ages, plus I know you love it." Katsuo looked at his sister and frowned.

"I… is an amusement park a good idea for a first date though?" He asked.

"It's unique. I think. I mean sure, you could take her to a movie, but you don't like movies. Or popcorn." She replied. He frowned.

"I do. I just don't like sweet popcorn. I like Salted popcorn, and you never made any salted popcorn. And… I might try watching a movie at some point. I didn't like them before because… well I was always thinking about ranked." Katsuo explained. His sister got a glimmer in her eyes.

"We could watch a movie sometime. I've still got those ones you liked when you were younger, we could watch those sometime. I'll even make popcorn." She said. Katsuo nodded.

"That sounds like a good idea. Also, don't just make all the popcorn sweet please."

"Why? Sweet is better than Salted."

"The Splatfest result would disagree with you."

Minami rolled her eyes. "Anyway, have you decided where you're gonna take her?"

"I… I'll figure it out." Was Katsuo's answer. Minami nodded and then smiled.

"Hey Katsuo. When you ask her out, just relax okay? Don't think that everything has to go perfect or she won't like you. I'm sure that if she likes you back, she'll be just as nervous. Just focus on having fun, and taking it easy okay?" She asked. Katsuo looked at her for a few moments before he nodded.

"I'll try." He glanced at the keyboard in the corner and suddenly remembered something. "I forgot to ask, how'd your show go?" The speed at which his sister's expression shifted to one of pure joy and excitement would've given him whiplash if he wasn't used to it.

"Great! Nearly 300 people showed up to watch! It was awesome! That's more people than we got last month!" She said cheerfully. Katsuo just smiled at his sister, happy and proud with how far she'd gotten with her band in the past six months. 300 people attending their performance was a far-cry from their first performance about a year ago, which had a measly 3 people who weren't family members show up.

Minami proceeded to bombard Katsuo with details for about 5 minutes before she stopped and shifted onto another topic, one she often brought up. "I still wish I'd gotten to go to one of the Squid sister's concerts and see them perform live… or even meet them…" Minami lamented. "It sucks that the tickets always sold out so fast…"

"Wait you never managed to go?" Katsuo asked. He'd only recently discovered just how much of a fan of the Squid sisters his sister was. Yet despite living with a of them fan, he'd still managed to avoid hearing about them somehow. She shook her head.

"Nope. And now that they've gone their separate ways, I'll never get to see a Squid Sisters' concert with my own eyes." She sighed. "At least I have the CD's of them." Katsuo immediately had an idea. He could get Minami to meet Callie and Marie. However, he then realized the main problem with that.

He would have to reveal the fact he was Agent 4 to his sister, and he wasn't sure how well that would go.

He'd never told his family about his Agent work, mainly because he had no idea how his parents would react and didn't exactly want to find out. But he pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the here and now.

"Yeah… that sucks." He then stood up. "Thanks for the advice. It's helped."

"My pleasure Kats."

"Dinner's ready!" Their father's voice happily boomed from the kitchen.

"On our way!"

* * *

 **And that's the chapter! Sorry that It focused solely on Katsuo, but I wanted to show a bit of his life at home. The next chapter will focus solely on Katsuo AND 8, so those of you who just want that, then the next chapter will (hopefully) make you very happy! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed and please do leave a review telling me what you thought, and I'll see you next time!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello and welcome to Chapter 8! I'm sorry there wasn't a chapter last week, but I think I'm back on track now and feeling a lot better. Thanks again to everyone who has Followed, favourited/reviewed so far, you guys are awesome! Anyway, on with the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo expansion.**

* * *

 _*The next day, Mid-day. *_

Katsuo looked around before he glanced at his phone again. "Where is she…" He nervously muttered to himself as he leaned forward in the chair he was on. Currently sitting at the table closest to the Crust bucket, he'd been waiting for over two hours for Eight to show up. His nervousness wasn't helped by the fact that he wasn't able to get a hold of her on his phone, which was due to him not having asked her for her number yet, and that he'd gotten up late that morning.

A whole hours late.

Katsuo had a very specific wake-up time which he (almost) never missed. However, his alarm clock's batteries had died in the middle of the night. As a result of this late start, he'd wolfed down his breakfast and sprinted down to the front area of his apartment building, deathly afraid of finding an extremely annoyed Eight waiting for him.

Except she hadn't been there.

This had sent him into panic mode, prompting him to rush to the square and search for her.

She hadn't been there either.

Now exhausted from sprinting to the square, he'd collapsed in the chair he was currently sitting in and had been waiting there for the past two hours, only getting up to grab a drink from the Crust bucket when he got thirsty. There was another reason he was nervous however.

He was planning on asking Eight out on a date to Wahoo world. He had yet to plan _what_ they would actually do there because he was seriously worried she would just say 'no' when he asked her.

And with each passing second of her not being there, his worrying and nervousness just got worse.

He glanced around the square, paradoxically hoping that he would not find her _and_ find her at the same time, the first because of how nervous he was, the second also because of how nervous he was. Part of his mind noticed the Octolings walking around, but he was too nervous to really take notice.

"Calm down… calm down it's just asking her on a date… not asking her to be your girlfriend…" He muttered to himself, trying to calm himself down. "It's just a date… just a date… just a date…"

"Just a date?" A voice asked somewhat loudly from behind him.

"BWAH!?" Katsuo screamed in fright as he nearly leapt out of his skin and the chair he was sitting in. He spun around to face whoever had scared the living daylights out of him and his face immediately went beet red when he saw a familiar pair of blue eyes looking back at him.

"E-Eight?" He asked meekly as he looked at the Octoling in question, who was struggling to hold back her giggling, an almost mischievous look in her eyes. Katsuo was painfully aware of just how high-pitched his scream had been, and he noticed out of the corner of his eye that a pair of Inklings were looking at him with a mixture of surprise, confusion and amusement. His face immediately felt like it got hotter by several degrees and his ears started burning.

"S-Sorry…" Eight said between giggles. "I was just wondering what you were talking about." She explained. Katsuo mustered up the best glare he could possibly manage and directed it at Eight, but her giggling vastly reduced any kind of impact it might've had on her.

"Y-You scared the living daylights out of me!" He exclaimed as angrily as he could, his embarrassment still out-weighing his anger. "W-Where were you this morning?" He asked. Eight's giggling stopped, and she pointed at her left ear, a confident smile spreading across her face as she turned her head to give Katsuo a better look. Katsuo looked to where she was pointing, and his eyes widened in surprise before he frowned.

"That's why." Eight said as she kept pointing at the Golden Toothpick. "I had to go back to the metro to get it, so it took me a while to get there and back. And uh… getting this was not easy, so it took me a while to do that too." That was also when Katsuo noticed her change in wardrobe. She was wearing a pink hoodie now, the undershirt poking out at the bottom over her shorts, along with a pair of Black Trainers.

"What is it?" Katsuo asked. Eight did her best to glance at the toothpick before looking back at him.

"It's… did Marina tell you about how the Inkantation works?" Katsuo nodded. "Well for me… when I heard it… I guess I got an… inner hero or something? And I had to fight that to get this…" She pointed at the Toothpick again. Katsuo was slowly nodding, but there was something else he'd noticed about the Toothpick, specifically how it looked on her.

"It's cute." He blurted out, his mouth once again working faster than his brain. His face, which had finally cooled down, erupted into an inferno once again along with his ears. "I-I… what I mean is it looks good!" He stammered, now worried she might take that comment the wrong way. "You look really cute with it, not that you don't already look cute, you already were cute, but that like …"

As Katsuo continued with his senseless rambling, he didn't notice Eight tilt her head slightly and reach up to touch the Golden Toothpick. "It's… cute…?" She murmured, her eyes looking in the direction of the pick. After a few moments, a warm blush spread across her cheeks as she smiled and looked back at Katsuo. Her hand moved in front of her mouth as she let out a short, soft giggle at his rambling.

"Thank you." She said. Katsuo's rambling immediately stopped and his eyes snapped onto her.

"Huh?" He asked in confusion. He blinked several times before his face heated up again. "W-what?" He asked dumbly, his brain currently a mess from his thoughts stumbling over each-other. Eight giggled again and her smile grew a bit.

"I said thank you." She said, still smiling at him. Katsuo blinked and opened his mouth to speak but then they made eye-contact, and the words died on his lips. Then, for what felt like an eternity but was actually a few short moments, Katsuo and Eight just stared at each other, and Katsuo suddenly found himself noticing things about Eight that he hadn't truly noticed until now.

The cute little tilt of her head as she looked at him, the warmth of her smile as she beamed at him, the look of confidence that was mixed with happiness that shone in her eyes, the warm blush that was colouring her cheeks, the way she had the end of her hair was curled around her finger and the way her hair, which was currently pink, seemed to perfectly frame her face. All of these things were suddenly burned into Katsuo's mind in crystal-clear detail.

He wasn't the only one getting a good examination in however. Eight found that in this moment she was noticing things about him she hadn't seen before. The greens of his eyes that gleamed with embarrassment and nervousness, but also a hint of happiness and something else that made her cheeks warm, the tangled mess that was the knot holding up his ponytail, the small yet noticeable birth mark just below his left eye that was a small round dot, and the somewhat silly way his mouth was hanging open as he looked at her.

After a few seconds the pair realized they were staring at each-other and Katsuo swiftly broke eye contact, his face now even redder than before. After a moment's silence, Katsuo spoke up and looked back at her.

"H-Hey Eight…?"

"Yeah?" She asked. Katsuo took a deep breath and then managed to blurt out what he wanted to say all at once.

"Will you please go on a date with me to Wahoo World?"

* * *

 **And that's chapter 8! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and please leave a review telling me what you thought! I'm sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter than usual, I've been struggling to find it in me to write this past week, my mind's been a complete mess. But enough about me, once again I hope you enjoyed, and I hope to see you next week!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello and welcome to chapter 9! Thank you to everyone who's followed, favourited or reviewed, it gives me extra motivation to keep writing! Please enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo Expansion**

* * *

Katsuo, in his entire life up until this point, had only ever been this nervous once before, and that was when he'd faced down Octavio to rescue Callie and the Great Zapfish. He could feel his hands trembling by his sides as he stared at Eight with such intensity it looked like he was trying to read her mind. His hearts pounded in his ears, his stomach felt like it was doing cartwheels out of sheer nervousness and his entire body felt jittery as his face felt like it was on fire. This was his first time ever asking a girl out, and he was terrified of the possibility of Eight saying no. Not only because he'd feel, and probably look, extremely awkward afterwards, but it would make his job of getting her used to Inkopolis way more awkward.

Eight tilted her head to the side slightly and frowned, causing Katsuo to feel like his stomach just jumped.

"What do you mean by 'go on a date?"

She asked, the tone of her voice clearly indicating she had no idea what that phrase entailed, yet she sounded interested. The phrasing of her question however, put Katsuo on a brief, but intense, emotional rollercoaster.

For a few seconds, Katsuo's stomach dropped like it was made of lead and his shoulders sagged. His nervousness was swiftly replaced with a mixture of sadness and hurt as his emotions plummeted to the depths of despair and he hung his head in sadness. _I guess I shouldn't be surp-_ Suddenly he snapped his head up to look at her, his emotional plunge temporarily halted. He blinked several times as he looked at Eight, who was now looking at him with a confused expression.

"Katsuo, are you okay?" She asked, a look of concern on her face.

"Eight… do you know what a date is?" He asked. Eight blinked.

"I know it means what day of the month and year it is. Does it have another meaning?" She asked, tilting her head slightly as she frowned. Katsuo just stared at her for a few moments before he almost collapsed backwards onto the chair he was in as he let out a massive sigh of relief. Then he laughed. A genuine, heartfelt laugh. Not at Eight, or at joke he'd just remembered, but at himself for forgetting Eight probably wouldn't understand how dating works. He felt his sadness and pain from his 'rejection' drain to be replaced with relief and tiredness, the sudden emotional swings draining some of his energy.

"Katsuo?" Eight asked, her confusion growing with each passing second. "What's so funny?" Her interest briefly shifted onto his expression. The genuine look of joy and amusement on his face as he laughed made the edges of her mouth curl upwards into a smile, and in that moment, she felt a desire to see him with that happy expression more often.

"N-Nothing." Katsuo said as he stopped his laughing. "I just remembered something, that's all." Then his nervousness returned in full force when he realised something, and the look of joy faded immediately, much to Eight's disappointment.

He would have to explain to Eight how dating worked.

"Is it what I said earlier?" Eight asked with a frown. Katsuo quickly shook his head.

"No, it's not! It's just… I… I'm an idiot, that's what." He blurted out, albeit he actually meant it. The Octoling frowned even more.

"No you're not." She said, her voice suddenly shifting to a more serious tone which Katsuo failed to notice.

"I am." Katsuo replied without thinking.

"You're not an idiot." Eight immediately replied, her tone of voice even more serious as she almost snapped at him, which _did_ catch his attention. He stared wide-eyed at her, blinking as he did so.

"Y-You think so?" He asked. Eight immediately nodded. The two then stared at each other for a few moments. "T-Thanks…" He said. The pair then realized that, once again, they were staring at each other and blushes crept across each of their faces. "S-So uh… about what I asked you… well it's part of this thing called… dating." Katsuo blurted out, wanting to get the conversation out of the way whilst he felt like he could manage it.

"Dating?" Eight asked. "I don't think I've heard about it before…" Katsuo took a deep breath and then started talking.

"W-well a date is… it's… it's a…" He paused for a moment. _Oh how am I supposed to explain this!?_ "W-Well you see… so a date is where two people just… hang out and… do stuff. Like… they hang out somewhere and have fun and they…" He faltered as his cheeks burned, the red on his face slowly growing stronger. "…Just hang out and… do fun stuff. And dating is when… you do it a lot…" He added, only to realize he'd repeated himself, and omitted the romantic aspect of it, which left him in a dilemma. If he told Eight about it, it had the potential to make the situation even more awkward since, for all he knew, she probably didn't like him back. But if he didn't tell her, then he ran the risk of giving her the wrong idea of what dating was and it would also mean he'd lied to her.

"So, dating is just where you hang out and have fun?" Eight asked. Katsuo took a deep breath.

"Yeah… and it also… is to see… if you like each other…" He trailed off as he spoke, his voice lowering to a mumble, causing Eight to not catch the end of his sentence.

"If you what?" Eight asked, a curious expression on her face as she intently listened to Katsuo's explanation. Katsuo's nerves reached an all-time high and he let out a few quick, short breaths to try and calm himself down.

"W-Well… they… they… w-well w-when you go on a d-date with someone… it's like… you're… seeing if… you'd… work…" He stammered and looked away as his face grew hotter, causing Eight to frown.

"'Work'?" She asked. Katsuo took another deep breath and looked back at Eight. He racked his brain for ideas…

…And then had an incredibly stupid one.

Which was to tell her he liked her.

 _I can't do that! S-She'd… I don't know… think I'm weird!?_ He took a deep breath and kept on speaking.

"W-Well… dating is… how people find out if they… like each other…" He said, his face redder than a tomato. He really wanted to just shut-up and stop talking. "So… like… if you go on a date… then… "But he pressed forwards with his explanation. "You… well see if you… actually like each other…"

Katsuo watched Eight intently as she pondered what he'd just told her. For a while, she was completely silent, just running over what he'd said in her head, her gaze fixed on the ground. Then she spoke up.

"I don't really understand what you mean by 'like each other'…" She said, her eyes snapping up to look at him. "Is it when you're friends?" She asked.

"It's… when you're more than friends." He said as he surprisingly managed to keep his voice level. Eight's eyes seemed to widen slightly, and a faint blush crept onto her cheeks.

"I… see… and dating is a part of that…" She paused. "And a date is just… you spend some time with someone… to see if you 'work', by hanging out somewhere and you… have fun together?" She asked. Katsuo nodded. "And you want to go on one with me…?" Katsuo nodded, prompting Eight to fall silent. Katsuo held his breath as he waited for Eights answer.

But then she smiled at him. Katsuo barely had time to register just how cute she looked before she spoke.

"Well… what are we waiting for?" She asked as she beamed at him. Katsuo blinked once and stared at her. His brain churned over what she'd said until it finally clicked.

She'd said yes.

He'd asked a girl out on a date and she'd said yes.

A girl. Had said yes. To going on a date. With him.

He actually leapt to his feet in excitement. His nervousness, which had threatened to reduce him to a jittery wreck, melted away and was replaced with pure, unbridled joy. He grinned at Eight and was almost bouncing on his feet.

"T-Thank you!" He blurted out, completely unsure as to what else to say. Eight giggled at him. "Well let's head over to Wahoo world then!" Eight nodded.

"Let's."

* * *

 _*Sometime later at the entrance to Wahoo world. *_

"Whoa…"

Katsuo looked at Eight and smiled at the look of amazement on her face. Well rather, his smile just got bigger. He'd been grinning like an idiot since the moment she'd said yes to going on a date with hi. Of course, he didn't really care if he looked like an idiot. He was on a date with the girl he liked, right now that was all he cared about.

"There's tons of rides here. You've got the Ferris Wheel, the roller-coaster, the mini-games, the other rides…"

"Ferris Wheel?" Eight asked. Katsuo pointed at the big spinning wheel in the distance. "Oh. Isn't this place also a stage?"

"Yeah, but only a part of it, not the whole thing. So, any ride you wanna go on first?" Katsuo asked. Eight looked around until her eyes settled on the main roller-coaster.

"How about that?" She asked, pointing at it. "Whatever that is."

"That's a roller-coaster…" He said, his gut twisting at the sight of it as his smile slowly faded. The roller-coaster had always scared him, ever since the first time he'd visited Wahoo world. "And uh… are you sure?" He asked, his voice giving away his fear. Eight looked at him in alarm before she looked back at it.

"Why, is it dangerous?" She asked, looking back at him. Katsuo shook his head.

"N-No… I just… don't like roller-coasters…" He muttered. Eight blinked and looked at him for a few moments before something clicked in her head and she smirked.

"Oh… so you're scared of a roller-coaster?" She asked teasingly.

"No I'm not!" He almost immediately replied, checking his tone at the last second to avoid snapping at her. "I just… don't like it…"

"Have you ever been on it?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I-no…"

"So why don't you just try it one time? It might not be as bad as you thought." She pointed out, secretly hoping he would change his mind about it.

"I-I-well it's… just… it looks scary." Katsuo meekly explained. He then saw the look on Eight's face and narrowed his eyes. "Fine! I'll try it, but you're coming with me!" He declared.

"Sure!" The two then made their way over to the ride.

* _A few minutes later. *_

"T-That was… wow… that was awesome!" Katsuo said cheerfully as he half-staggered away from the roller-coaster alongside Eight. He was currently on a bit of a high from adrenaline, but he was coming down off of it.

"Yeah it was…" Eight said in agreement, coming down from her own adrenaline fuelled high.

"I kinda wanna do it again." He said. "Roller-coasters are awesome!"

"Didn't you say it was scary?" Eight asked with a raised eyebrow and a teasing smile. Katsuo shot her a glare.

"No, I didn't." He retorted. "Actually, we'll go on it again later, right now we've got the whole of the World to experience!" He said cheerfully, fist-pumping the air as he did so. "You ready Eight?" He asked, grinning at her. Eight smiled back and nodded.

"Yeah!" She said, adding her own fist-pump. And the pair ventured off into the park. After going on a few more rides, they found themselves at a stall which was run by a Jellyfish. The point of the stall? A game where prizes could be won by knocking down some stacked objects using a soft ball. Katsuo had elected to go first.

The Inkling narrowed his eyes as he considered his throw. He pulled his right arm back and pointed to the stack of blocks with his left arm. The blocks were stacked in a triangle style, with one on top, two in the middle, and three on the bottom. He then threw the ball with all the strength he could muster…

…And only knocked off the block on the top of the pile. He huffed slightly and picked up the second ball, this time going aiming at the second stack of blocks. He took aim again and threw. He experienced greater success as he managed to knock _two_ blocks off the stack. Unfortunately, in order to get a decent prize, he'd need to knock down the remaining pile.

He picked up the last ball and focused on the third and final stack of blocks. He pulled his arm back and took aim with his other arm again, but this time paused at this stage. He narrowed his eyes and focused as he decided on the best spot to hit the stack. He lowered his aim slightly, aiming for the bottom. He then made the throw, hurling the ball straight at the stack as hard as he could. He watched as it hurtled through the air-

-And struck the bottom of the stack, knocking the whole thing over.

"Nice one Katsuo!" Eight cheered for him. He gave her a thumbs up and the Jellyfish running the stall offered him the prizes. Whilst he couldn't get the best ones there were because he'd failed to knock down all three stacks, he'd still get something decent. He frowned as he looked at the options. "Which one you gonna get?" Eight asked him.

"No idea…" He replied as he examined the potential prizes. Then something caught his eye. It was Lil' Judd, specifically a soft toy of him. "I'll have that please." He said, pointing to the little replica of the cat. The Jellyfish swiftly handed it to him, and Katsuo and Eight then walked away.

"Here." Katsuo said after a few seconds, offering the Lil' Judd toy to Eight. He felt his face warm up slightly as he did so. "It's for you." Eight looked at him and then down at the toy. She blinked and then looked back at him, her cheeks gaining a tinge of pink before she gently took the toy from him. As she held it in her hands and looked at it, a warm smile spread across her face before she hugged it and looked at him.

"Thank you." She said sincerely. Katsuo glanced at her, a warm blush now on his cheeks.

"You're welcome." He said with a smile before the two headed further into Wahoo World to enjoy what else it had to offer.

* * *

"Hmm… I'm not sure…"

"What?"

"I want some, but I can't decide _what_ I want… there's so many options…"

"Well if it's your first one… You could just try my favourite."

"Which is?"

"Vanilla!" Katsuo said with a smile. "It's absolutely delicious! Chocolate's really good too!" The pair were standing next to an ice-cream stand, and currently Eight was facing the incredibly difficult, life-changing choice of deciding what her first ever ice-cream would be. She had no idea what even half the types were, but she was interested in trying all of them. Currently she was thinking either Strawberry or Chocolate, but she was also considering getting some cotton candy instead.

"Hmm… I guess it couldn't hurt to try it out…" Katsuo quickly got both of them some Vanilla ice-cream, once he got past the que of course, and the two sat on a bench to enjoy it.

"Great isn't it?" Katsuo asked, eagerly eating his ice-cream. Eight smiled at him as she thought about the day so far. She was without a drop of doubt that she'd had more fun today than any other day in her life so far. Not only that, but she'd been bearing witness to just how cheerful Katsuo was all day so far, and it'd certainly had an affect on her. She found herself almost constantly smiling in his presence, which may be partly due to the fact he'd been grinning almost all day as well.

The only real downside to the day had been the occasional pun he'd made.

But she shifted her attention to her ice-cream. She glanced at Katsuo and took note of him licking it. Extending her tongue, she had her first ever taste of ice cream as she gently licked the frozen food. Her eyes widened the moment she full registered the taste, amazed at how _good_ it tasted. She then eagerly started eating it, eager to have more. Katsuo glanced at her and he chuckled, prompting her to stop.

"Nice to see you're enjoying it!" He said with a grin. Eight grinned back and nodded.

"Thank you for buying it for me." She said. Katsuo looked at her and smirked.

"I guess you could say it was n _ice_ , wasn't it?" He asked. Eight paused for a moment before she playfully rolled her eyes.

"Your puns are worse than your aim sometimes." She said with a teasing smirk.

"No they're not." Katsuo shot back, his smirk still on his face. "I think they're _pun_ tastic." Eight rolled her eyes again before she chuckled.

"Sure." She said. The two idly chatted for a while before Katsuo leapt to his feet once he finished his ice cream.

"Let's go!" He said cheerfully, fist pumping the air. "We haven't got much time till the World closes, so we better make the most of it!" Eight giggled at him.

"Slow down." She said with a smile. "I still need to finish my ice cream. Can't I take my time and enjoy it?" She asked playfully. Katsuo looked a little deflated in response.

"I… I guess yeah. Hey, wanna ride the Ferris Wheel next?" He asked, his mood immediately ballooning back.

"Sounds great to me!" Eight said, getting to her feet once she finished her ice cream.

"Then let's go!" The pair headed off towards the aforementioned Wheel. On the way there however, Eight looked at Katsuo for a while. She'd been thinking over the whole 'liking' someone else thing that Katsuo had mentioned for most of the day. Initially, she'd struggled to really understand what he meant by it, and what _exactly_ 'liking' someone meant, but after the time she'd spent with Katsuo today?

She smiled as she looked at the face of the Inkling walking next to her, a face full of joy, and one she wanted to always see him wearing.

 _Well… I think I get it now…_

* * *

 **And that's the chapter! Thank you so much for reading, I sincerely hope you enjoyed it, and please leave a review telling me what you thought! I read all of them and greatly appreciate it! I hope to see you next time! Have a lovely day/night!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello and welcome to Chapter 10! Once again thank you for all the follows, favourites and reviews! Let's get on with this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo expansion.**

* * *

 _*The next day, midday. *_

"So, which is your favourite?"

"Hmm… not sure. The Squelchers are pretty good, but I really like the regular Dualies. Tenta's are… meh if I'm honest, useful for distracting someone but not really for actually splatting 'em." Katsuo said, leaning against a wall. He took a quick sip of his drink through its straw as he pondered Eight's question a bit more. The two were standing just outside the lobby in the square.

"It still confuses me not a single charger has those as a special." Eight remarked, taking a sip from her own drink. "And the Bamboozler doesn't count." She added, cutting off Katsuo before he had the chance to speak. He shrugged and the two stood in silence for a few moments before Katsuo resumed the conversation.

"Those Kensa Dualies are great! Dodge-rolling into a baller then charging into the other team and popping it for a splat then dodge rolling again and scoring more splats is so cool." He said enthusiastically. Eight giggled slightly.

"Sure. If rolling headfirst into a blaster is what you call cool." She said teasingly. Katsuo narrowed his eyes at her.

"Hey! That was only once!" He shot back. Eight giggled in reply, a teasing smile on her face.

"I know, I know. And I'm happy it was only once." Katsuo blinked and stared at her in confusion. "It means you learnt from your mistake. And that's how you get better right?" She asked him, her smile no longer teasing. Katsuo blinked and stared at her before a smile spread across his face.

"Yeah! Yeah it is!" He then grinned. "I'm still gonna get to S one day, you'll see!" He said cheerfully, pumping his free arm into the air which got a giggle out of Eight and she copied his arm pump.

"Yeah you will!" She said cheerfully, smiling at him. Katsuo's grin was suddenly replaced with a look of realization as his eyes widened. Before Eight could even ask, he spoke up.

"Hey Eight, could we do League battle together?" He asked. "I just thought that it'd be a great way for us to practice!" He added. "Plus… well… you know…" A blush spread across his face. "We'd get to battle together more… b-"

"Sure." Eight said with a beaming smile. "Wanna jump into a few games now?" she asked. Katsuo glanced down at his drink and stared at it for a few seconds before he downed what was left of it. Eight, having nearly finished hers, merely took one last long sip to finish it off before the pair quickly deposited the now empty cups into a nearby bin and eagerly jumped into their first League Battles.

* * *

 _*Roughly 2 hours later…*_

"We did it! We got Bronze!" Katsuo said cheerfully, practically bouncing up and down from excitement as they exited the lobby.

"Yeah!" Eight said just as cheerfully, albeit she was more restrained in her physical reaction, only pumping her arm into the air.

"You were awesome Eight!" Katsuo added. "You're amazing with the charger!" Eight's smile grew slightly as she lowered her arm.

"Thanks Katsuo. You were pretty awesome with the Dualies too." She added. He blinked and stared at her, dropping his arm to his side.

"You think so?" He asked. She chuckled.

"If I didn't, why would I say it in the first place?" She asked playfully. "There were some mistakes you made, and some of the times you got splatted could've been avoided, but I could say the same about myself. We've both got a lot of room to improve, but with enough training and hard work we can do it!" She pumped her arm into the air again, a grin on her face. Katsuo nodded and also pumped his arm.

"Yeah! We'll show 'em!" He said. Eight raised an eyebrow.

"Show who?" She asked, a playful look on her face. Katsuo blinked and stared at her, his arm drooping a bit.

"Uh… uh… o-our opponents! That's who!" He said, thrusting his arm up again. Eight let out a soft chuckle and nodded.

"Yeah!" The two grinned at each other, and as they did so, both of them started blushing.

"Hey Eight?" Katsuo asked, lowering his arm.

"Yeah?" She asked, also lowering her arm. Katsuo felt his face heat up even more.

"I-I never got the chance to say it yesterday but… hanging out with you at Wahoo world was great." He smiled at her. Then he squashed his nerves and also added. "After all, it's not every day I get to go on a date with the cutest girl in Inkopolis." _Oh squid that sounded so corny… please don't laugh at me…_

Eight's eyes widened as far as they could as she looked at him, her cheeks rapidly turning a dark crimson. Then she smiled. A happy, warm smile that radiated naught but pure joy. "Well it's not every day that I get to go on a date with the nicest guy in Inkopolis either. There's also the added bonus that he's really handsome." She added with a wink.

Katsuo's face felt like it was on the verge of bursting into flames, but the boy couldnt've been happier. His face broke into a goofy grin even as his cheeks turned a dark crimson. "Thank you." He said, completely unable to think of another response to her compliment. Eight giggled.

"Wanna go grab some lunch?"

"Sure." Katsuo said with a nod and the two set off to the Crust bucket, walking side-by-side. As they did, Katsuo felt his hand brush up against Eight's a few times. Part of him was tempted to hold it, but before he could decide about acting on it, they reached the bucket. After getting food, the pair sat down at a nearby table. There they happily chatted away for a while before jumping back into Battles, eager to do the best they could.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review telling me what you thought. I hope to see you next week! We're getting close to the end of the story, just two chapters left! Any who, have a great day/night and see you next time!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello and welcome to the final chapter of the story! I'm so sorry this was a week or so late, but I've been super busy with life and stuff! But here it is, the conclusion to this little story of mine. Thank you so much to all of you for reading this, I really hope you've enjoyed it! A big, final thank you to everyone who's favourited, followed or reviewed the story, it means a lot to me! Now, I hope you enjoy this final chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon, Splatoon 2 or the Octo expansion.**

* * *

 _*A few days later, mid-morning…*_

"… _Why?"_ Katsuo asked with a faint blush as he looked at Eight's ponytail. Part of him wondered how it was possible for her to get even cuter, whilst the rest of him just appreciated it.

"Because I figured you'd like it." She said as she beamed at him.

"R-Really?" He asked, eyes darting down to meet hers.

"Yes. So? What'cha think?" The octoling asked, her ponytail swaying as she cutely tilted her head.

"I-It looks good… and… cute…" Katsuo stated honestly, the blush on his cheeks growing in intensity and warming his face up.

"Really? Thanks Kats!" His crush cheerfully replied, her already broad smile somehow getting a bit wider. A tinge of red was on her cheeks, but he didn't notice.

For the last day or so, Eight had been calling him 'Kats'. The sudden change had surprised the inkling, especially since previously it had been only his family who'd called him that. However, he'd soon gotten used to, and grown to like, the nickname. The two had gotten closer over the past few days, albeit he'd yet to muster the courage to cross that final hurdle and ask her to be his girlfriend, but he was working towards it.

Kinda.

On a small side note, he still needed a nickname for her though, and that was proving a bit hard to come up with. Mainly due to his lack of imagination, and the fact that her name was already quite short.

Currently though, his focus was on something else. Specifically, the issue of asking her to be his girlfriend. He had a plan on how he'd do it.

Well, sort of.

"So Eight…" Katsuo started, nervously rocking back and forth on his feet.

"Yeah?"

"You uh… wanna go uh… ha- "

Whatever he'd planned to say was cut-off by his phone suddenly buzzing loudly in his pocket. Moments later Eight's buzzed as well, and they both took them out to check what they'd been sent.

It was a message From Callie. Katsuo's read as:

" _Hey Four! Marie and I are planning to spend the day hanging out around Inkopolis. Wanna join us?"_

Katsuo blinked and stared at the message. But as he opened his mouth to speak, Eight unintentionally cut him off.

"Callie just asked me if I'd like to hang out with her and Marie today." She said before she looked up at Katsuo and frowned at the look on his face.

"She asked me too." He said. He had to do a double take when he thought he saw an annoyed pout flash across her face for a moment. He blinked once as he looked at her, a small frown on his face.

"Eight?" He asked, confused.

"Yeah?" She replied, flashing him a smile.

"Are you okay?" He asked, concern in his voice. She nodded.

"I'm fine." She said, giving another smile. Katsuo contemplated this for a few moments before he dismissed it. _Probably isn't anything._

"Okay… Wanna join 'em? Sounds like it could be fun!" Katsuo said with a grin. Eight looked at him before she turned her attention to her phone. Katsuo blinked again when he thought he saw an annoyed pout flash across her face again.

"I'd prefer if it was just you and me…" She muttered, almost sounding annoyed.

"Eight?" Katsuo asked with a frown, leaning forwards slightly. _There it was again…_

"Nothing!" Eight said quickly, flashing Katsuo a smile. "And sure! Sounds great to me!" She said cheerfully. They both sent a quick _"Sure thing!"_ reply. Moments later they got more info.

" _Meet us in the square in about half-an-hour! We'll be by the Crust Bucket."_ Read the messages. Katsuo sent a quick _"We'll be there!"_ In reply whilst Eight just put her phone away, a small, annoyed pout on her face.

"Something wrong?" Katsuo asked, frowning at the look on her face.

"No I'm fine!" She said quickly, smiling at him, her pout instantly disappearing. Katsuo's frown didn't immediately go away.

"Are you sure?" He asked. She nodded.

"Yep!" She said with a nod. She glanced at the lobby. "I feel like a bit of Turf War whilst we wait. Sound good to you?" She asked. _I'll ask her later… maybe… or even during Turf wars. Maybe it isn't anything…_

"Sure!" He said, dismissing the thought for later and the two jumped into battles.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Katsuo said cheerfully as he and Eight walked towards them. He waved to Callie and Marie who were standing next to the Crust Bucket. Marie was in the middle of a chat with Crusty Sean whilst Callie was idly looking around. The moment her eyes landed on Katsuo, she grinned.

"Hey guys!" She said cheerfully, rushing up to the pair. She stopped a short distance away from Katsuo and grinned at him. Katsuo didn't notice how Eight gently pressed her shoulder against his as Callie leaned forwards slightly and looked between the pair. "You two look like you just got off battling. Did you have fun?"

"Yeah!" Katsuo said with a nod and a smile. "Just a bit of Turf War. Tried out chargers today, didn't do too well." Callie's eyes instantly lit up at the mention of chargers.

"Marie's great with chargers, you could ask her for some advice!" She said cheerfully. "Oh, if you ever wanna try out Rollers, let me know and I'll help if I can!" Callie punctuated the end of her sentence with another grin, something which made Katsuo's smile grow even more. Neither he nor Callie noticed the annoyed pout on Eight's face.

"If I ever decide to get serious about learning them I'll ask Marie for advice." He said.

"Or you could ask me." Eight suddenly butted in. "I'm pretty good with chargers, I can give you some tips." She said, leaning a bit more into Katsuo. This time however, he noticed it and he felt his face heat up slightly as his hand brushed against hers and confusion built up in his mind over her behaviour. Marie, by this stage, had finished her chat with Crusty Sean and had turned her attention to the group. The moment her eyes landed on Eight and Katsuo however, a smirk immediately spread across her face.

"Hey you two." She said as she walked up next to Callie. Her focus shifted to Eight for a moment and when the Octoling's eyes met hers, Marie's smirk somehow grew even more. "We were thinking of just having a wander around at first, maybe stop off at a few shops here and there or head to a mall. Then maybe pay a visit to Wahoo world later to just have fun on the rides."

"I'm not going on the Dead Drop again." Callie said firmly. "Or the Rollercoaster. Or the Ferris Wheel. Or-"

"I know, I know." Marie said with a chuckle. "You get motion sickness and hate heights. There's still a ton of stuff for you to do you know."

As the Squid sisters had a brief chat about their past experiences on the rides at the World, Katsuo just watched with a smile on his face. He was unaware of the pouting Eight next to him.

" _Anyway_ …" Marie said, cutting off her chat with Callie in favour of getting the day going. "Let's get going!"

"Yeah!" Callie and Katsuo said in unison.

"Yeah!" Eight said with less enthusiasm than the others. Marie immediately noticed this and just smirked again as the group headed off to enjoy their day in Inkopolis.

* * *

 _I don't mind hanging out with Callie and Marie but… I'd rather it just be me and Kats… at least today…_

Eight looked at Katsuo, who was currently intensely focused on the arcade game he was playing. Callie was standing next to him watching him play and, in Eight's opinion, was a bit _too_ close.

 _I know he likes me and doesn't have the faintest interest in Callie, but I'd prefer him… not to be so close to… her._ Her pout came back.

"You're pulling that face nearly every time you look at him." Marie said. "Has something happened?" She asked. Any possibility that she genuinely didn't know what was going on was eliminated by the fact she was smirking as she asked that question.

"No." Eight replied. "It's just, I had a plan for today."

"Oh?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, what's stopping you from changing the plan?" Marie asked. Eight looked at Marie and was about to speak when realization dawned on her. She closed her mouth and a small smile spread across her face as she looked back at Katsuo.

 _Good point…_

"!" Katsuo's eyes darted downwards as he felt something soft wrap itself firmly around his hand as he walked away from the arcade. His eyes widened, and his face exploded into a blush the moment he saw that _Eight was holding his hand._

He looked up to see that she was looking at him with a neutral expression. After a moment, she smiled and squeezed his hand gently for a moment, a warm blush on her cheeks. His face turned an even darker shade of red in response, but he managed a smile and squeezed her hand back.

 _I guess I'll do it today then._ Both of them thought at the same time.

* * *

Katsuo had been holding Eight's hand for the better part of an afternoon, and it was without a doubt the best afternoon of his life so far.

Right now though, his thoughts were elsewhere.

Katsuo let out a shaky breath as he gripped the railing in front of him. He looked out across the edge of the pier over the water as he tried to control his shaking legs.

"T-That was… something…" He said. Fresh off the Dead Drop and riding an adrenaline fuelled high, he was trying to calm down.

"You okay?" Eight asked as she walked up next to him and placed her hands on the railing as well. Her left one was right next to Katsuo's right hand. A look of excitement was on her face, but she'd obviously handled the ride better, since unlike Katsuo, she wasn't shaking at all.

"Y-Yeah I'm fine just… gotta ya know… calm down… that was… definitely something…" He spared her a glance. "Heh… wish I was handling it as well as you are…" He said cheerfully which made Eight giggle softly.

"You're doing fine." She said with a smile, sliding her left hand along the rail until it was holding Katsuo's. A blush spread across the boy's cheeks again but he smiled. "I've had my fair share of excitement. At least now none of it's inherently dangerous." She added. A question popped up in Katsuo's mind.

"You're talking about that Metro right?" He asked. Eight seemed to pause for a moment before she nodded and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah. Some of the test chambers down there were… intense to say the least. Not to mention the part where I had to escape." She looked down at the rail, her smile fading slightly.

"I've wondered this ever since we met… how did you become Agent 8? Do we have an Agent 5,6 and 7 I've never heard about?" Katsuo asked. Eight shook her head.

"I got the number Eight because The Captain thought it'd be a bit much to repeat my subject number every time he talked to me." She explained.

"Subject number?" Katsuo asked with a frown. _I probably should've asked about this sooner… since it seems like such a big deal._ Eight looked at him.

"Oh right. You don't know about Kamabo, Co. Or what the underground really was. I guess I'll start from when I found the Captain…"

And so Eight regaled Katsuo with the tale of her time in the DeepSea Metro. He listened with rapt attention, interested and eager to learn about this mysterious place. He occasionally stopped her story to ask a question or two, but he kept them brief, as he was more interested in hearing more of the story. Shock, surprise, amusement, anger and even horror were among the emotions that passed across his face as Eight told him her story.

"Wow…" Was all Katsuo could manage upon the completion of Eight's story. A myriad of emotions were bouncing about in his head as he processed what he'd just been told. But above all else, Katsuo felt a strange sense of… humility. _I saved Callie and the Great Zapfish… whilst she saved everything…_ He just looked at her and the somewhat blank expression on her face.

"Yeah…" Her gaze turned to the railing in front of her.

"You're incredible Eight." He said with a smile. The Octoling turned to look at him with slightly widened eyes. "You're the most incredible person I know." She looked at him for a moment before she gently squeezed his hand again and smiled.

"Thank you Katsuo." She said sincerely. "For everything." He blinked and frowned.

"Whaddya mean?" He asked, only to be more confused when Eight giggled.

"For showing me around Inkopolis and helping me get a hang of how things worked here. And before you say, 'I didn't do that great a job' or something similar, I think you did a great job." Her smile grew slightly. "I couldn't've asked for a better guide." She gave his hand another squeeze.

"I…" Katsuo was briefly dumbfounded as to how to reply, but a response soon came to mind. "It's not a problem Eight." He said after a few moments of thinking. "Anything for you." The boy added with a smile. Eight's smile grew more.

"Thank you." She said.

Katsuo just gazed into Eight's eyes in silence as she gazed back, neither of them having, or needing, to say anything else. Then, slowly, they started slowly leaning towards each other. They both felt their faces gradually get warmer as the other's face drew closer with each passing second. Katsuo could feel his hearts pounding in his ears as his brain went into overtime, all his attention and focus on the dazzling blue eyes of the Octoling in front of him. A part of him was on the verge of panicking, worried that he was about to screw up his first kiss in an incredibly embarrassing way. Her cheeks slowly turned red as her face drew closer and Katsuo's eyes darted from her lips to her eyes repeatedly as the distance narrowed to mere inches.

Katsuo's face was burning and he barely dared to breath as Eight drew closer. Their noses brushed against each other and both their blushes grew even more. Eight's eyes darted downwards for a moment before snapping up to look into Katsuo's eyes again. There they hovered, less than an inch or so apart with cheeks as red as tomatoes, their hearts pounding in their ears. The two were barely breathing, only short breaths escaping either of their lips.

It was almost like an invisible force was holding the two in place, denying either of them the right to close that final, tiny gap. But then, almost like the mysterious force that had been restraining them had suddenly let them free, they closed the gap and their lips finally met. Almost on reflex, they both closed their eyes as they stood there, lips locked together in a simple, but passionate, kiss. Katsuo unconsciously removed his arms from the railing and wrapped them around Eight, who in turn did the same. They pulled each other closer as they stood there, thoughts of anything but each-other practically non-existent.

After what felt like an eternity in each other's arms, they finally broke the kiss and silently looked into each other's eyes. A small smile crept onto Katsuo's bright red face which drew a smile from Eight, her face just as red as his.

"That…" Katsuo started. Eight giggled and just rested her forehead against his.

"Well…" She said, not entirely sure what exactly to say. "That was a first." Katsuo chuckled.

"Yeah it was..." The two stood there in silence for a bit longer. "So… Eight…"

"Yeah?"

"This is… probably kinda silly to ask but… we're… a couple now… right?" He asked. Eight pulled her head back and stared at him for a moment before she giggled.

"Of course we are, you doofus." She said playfully, resting her forehead against his again. "Unless you _didn't_ see that kiss as asking me out…" She asked with a playful smirk.

"No I did!" Katsuo quickly shot back, his face heating up even more. Eight giggled at his reaction.

"Good to know." She glanced towards the main area of Wahoo World. "We should probably go find Callie and Marie… they might be worried about us." She looked back at him.

"Yeah…" He then smiled at her. "We've still got most of the day to enjoy, so why don't we make the best of it?" She nodded.

"Yeah!" The two unwrapped themselves from each other but before they moved off to find the Squid Sisters, Katsuo slid his hand into Eight's and gripped it firmly. With smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts, the couple wandered off, the only thoughts on their mind's were ones of each other and the joy to come in the days ahead.

 **The end.**

* * *

 **And that is it! That's the chapter and the story complete! One final massive thank you to all of you for reading this story, and I seriously hope you enjoyed it! Thanks again to all the followers, favouriteres (I know it's not an actual word) and reviewers, you guys are awesome! And so are you, reading this right now! Now if you're wondering if I'll write more, I hope you'll be pleased to hear I am! Well, at least planning to, but not for a while. I have a few story ideas kicking around that I'm gonna get around to doing. But for now, goodbye, and I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope to see you again on my next story!**


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